The Worst 24 Hours Ever
by consumedbylove
Summary: Ryou has always wished to be free of the spirit of the ring, but when he finally gets his wish will he discover life without the spirit can be more hectic then life with him?
1. Chan

Watch as the crazy 24 hours starts…

This story takes place immediately after Yami and Yami Bakura's first duel in duelist kingdom. This will be in Ryou's P.O.V. for the entirety of the fic.

Disclaimer- I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! However, I can show it to you Ryou-style.

He was gone. I tried to wrap my head around that as Yuugi and I watched the rest of the group groggily wake up. Since they were not as used to shadow games as us, it was taking them longer to recover. I searched for him within my soul, just to be sure.

"Spirit?" I called throughout my mind. I had yet to come up with a proper name for him.

When I had asked him, long ago when we first met, he said his name was Bakura. I could not call him that for the obvious reason. That was what people called me. It would be too awkward calling him that. I had considered simply making up a name and giving it to him, but I then decided that it would be rude to do so.

I would not have liked it if he had gone "Look I'm inhabiting your body now and my names Bakura so you can just be Namu. Got it?" So why do it to him? I tried calling him 'Voice' but that did not work either. Whenever he said something to me, I thought, "The voices in my head are talking to me." I would not go down that road! I was not crazy! There really is the spirit of an ancient Egyptian thief that talks to me and makes me do things. Don't look at me like that I am not schizophrenic! God, I hope not anyway.

Anyway, we settled with him calling me Host and me calling him Spirit. Honestly, I was surprised when Spirit told Yuugi he was not Bakura. But he just had to add in that Chan." I'm not Bakura-_Chan_" At first, I was thrilled that Spirit did that for me. I was so glad that distinction between us. It meant that Yuugi would understand! That he would know that, I am not the soul-stealing psycho. Then it hit me. "Chan?" I remember asking Spirit. "You do know I'm not female, right?"

"I'm still getting used to these suffixes you Japanese use" Spirit responded a sadistic grin on his face as he prepared for the game. "Besides didn't you say that "Chan" was the appropriate suffix for children?" He said while shuffling Yuugi's deck.

"I'm 16, hardly a child." I retorted a little miffed. He had used it for the sole reason of patronizining me and he knew it. Appropriate suffix my arse. Since when did he care?

"I am 5,000 years old. Everyone is a child in comparison to me." He responded. He had a point." Getting back to the female subject though, you are very feminine looking." He added.

A mandatory insult that I was always prepared for.

"Since we share the same body, you just called yourself feminine looking"

One of the downsides of being a male with long hair was that you were the constant butt of jokes. I had prepared a retort for every person, including the spirit. Especially a retort for the spirit actually, since he had zero respects for me and was constantly finding flaw.

"I have to look like you because we're in the same body." He started. I could feel a rant coming on. "If you could see me in my glory days it would be something completely different." Here we go..."I was tall and muscular, fit and had none of that long flowing hair and big doe eyes. I had a look that would terrify the bravest warrior, I was KING and everyone who looked at me knew it in the pits of their soul. Unlike you, the person who is target of everything that moves and who has been mistaken for a female on three occasions. I can't command any respect looking like this." He had such a huge ego... A ghost of a though crossed my mind. 'And it's all your fault.' it said. He was not speaking to me, was not even paying attention to me but staring at Yuugi with hard eyes. Sharing a mind made it hard for us to hide things from each other. We often heard each other's stray thoughts of random things. It could be awkward at times, but it helped us get to know each other better. However, I put what he had said out of mind and recalled his attention.

"You might think I'm a loser," I said "But you're losing the game." I said with a smirk to rival his own.

"Yuugi just got Jounochi back. You haven't managed too keep a single one of them in the grave, I think he's going to win" I said. I was actually confident. Yuugi was doing far better then anyone who had ever played and I was hopeful for him. I might actually keep some friends.

"Are you instating that he's stronger then me?" The spirit yelled.

I had not been expecting that strong a reaction. There must be more going on between the two of them that I did not know about.

"Are you calling me weak?" I had definitely hit the wrong button.

"I'll show you what I can do!" This was bad.

A sly smile appeared on his face that scared me far more then when he was yelling at me. It was the grin he wore to people who were about to die, and it was staring straight at me. A light appeared around me and I was no longer in my soul room. He had trapped me in something.

"You're in a card." Spirit told me. "Change of heart to be exact." he specified. "You will cooperate with the plan or you will be trapped in it forever." Why did I have to have such a big mouth…?

"It's a bit strange that you keep getting those weak cards, oh ahem I'm sorry, your friends out of the graveyard so quickly," Spirit said no longer speaking to me through our mind link but speaking aloud to Yuugi.

"The miracle of friendship made it happen. Count on it!" Yuugi replied. I laughed that he said something like that with such a serious face. Spirit laughed too.

"You're going to use the power of friendship? Don't make me laugh." I wondered if he intended the pun. "I'll show you the power of _terror_" Spirit said and placed down lady of faith."

I knew the line was about me when the spirit revealed his plan. He wanted to use me to take over Yuugi and attack my friends to help him win. He thought I was terrified enough of being trapped in the card to actually go along with the plan. I looked at the game and made my strategy. Spirit was too busy gloating to notice the pure rebellion in my thoughts.

If any dialogue happened next, I did not hear it. At that point, Spirit summoned me to the Field. I had never been shoved into a shadow game before was new for me, though I had seen Spirit do it many times to others. The feeling shocked me and at the strange phenomenon, I let out a small gasp. Yuugi was looking at me with fear, wondering if I would actually do as the spirit commanded.

I gave him a smile to show I was on his side and quickly ran to the Lady of faith before Spirit realized what was happening. I took over her and felt a small satisfaction at taking someone else over instead of constantly being the one taken over.

"Yuugi-kun attack me" I yelled before any of the thoughts of 'This is going to hurt', 'I'm going to have to go to the graveyard.' and 'It's going to be weeks before Spirit lets me out, IF he lets me out' made me re-think my plan.

"WHAT!" Spirit yelled.I was not surprised that my rebellion shocked him. I was not a rebel. I had never made a fuss when spirit wanted to use my body. The few times he actually asked and did not simply rip me from control. I had never broken free and stopped a shadow game before, a fact I am not proud of nor can I ever forgive. For eight years, I have let Spirit run amuck but now he has given me the tools to put him in his place. He will LOSE this game, I will KEEP my friends and maybe he will have more respect for me, maybe our relationship will change for the better. We can be equals or I will stay in the graveyard. Might as well be dead if I am going to sit back and let Spirit control my life forever. I have to take a stand no matter the consequences.

Fully motivated I yelled "Hurry, attack me and defeat the dark duelist." as they had been calling him. Yuugi-kun however hesitated.

"But if I do that your soul will..."he said worriedly. I was touched that my new friend cared. I had been right; Yuugi would be the one that I could trust, all more the more reason to save him. "It doesn't matter," I yelled! "I can't go on being controlled by an evil heart! Attack!" I had to do this. I thought to myself, letting only sheer determination being visible in my stance. I had to do this to protect Yuugi, his friends and for all the souls that had been sacrificed because of my weakness, this would be my penance Let me be the sacrifice now.

"DAMN YOU!" Spirit yelled above me. Yes, I damn me for all my sins. I was ready for this. Then something neither the spirit nor I expected to happen did.

Without a word, as if he had been waiting for this very moment the whole game, the Yuugi who had been duelling's puzzle started to glow as he stared at us intently.

Suddenly I was no longer the Change of heart or the Lady of Faith. I was the dueler above. I looked down to see Spirit had taken my place inside Lady of Faith.

Before I had time to gather how or why this was happening, Duelist Yuugi yelled. "Now it's my turn! Black magician Yuugi attack lady of faith!" and Yuugi attacked Spirit sending him to the grave.

It happened so quickly. One minute I was preparing to die to save my friends and the next I'm standing over the tree stump with the cards spread out over it as if we had just been playing a normal game. As if it had not just changed my life as I knew it. All because I was upset, he called me Chan.

I had gotten Spirit killed. I felt a twinge of guilt. I wanted Spirit to lose not die. I didn't want anyone to die, that had been the point!

The examination on my conscience paused when I heard Jounochi say, "Damn, what a dream, Bakura was so freaky. He scared the living daylights out of me."

I walked over to them. This was my chance! Spirit was gone and that was unfortunate but he should have died 5,000 years ago, so perhaps it was for the best. I now had my chance to live out my life. To be someone you could trust. It was time to establish myself completely as the good Bakura.

I bent down and gave them my best smile hoping it said 'Hi, I am a nice person and not an evil psychopath that likes to steal souls and put them into cards.'

Perhaps I tried too hard or they were just really shaken up from the game because they both screamed. Yuugi-kun and I laughed, as Honda and Jounochi yelled at me not scare them like that. I could get used to this. To have a mind of my own, a friend who understands what I have been through and friends to just joke around with could make life so much better. For the moment, life was good.

Then a blood curdling feminine scream of terror ripped across the forest.

A/N-Lets get a review! First fanfic…


	2. Walking the green mile

(A/N) I am very grateful to my first and only reviewer Lantu-san! This chapter is dedicated to you! It probably would not have been posted if not for your review.

Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did most of the male characters would be wearing less clothing and it would have less card games and more drama and romance.

The blood-curdling shriek pierced my ears and the only thing I could think was 'Spirit is gone now! I don't want to have to deal with this kind of thing anymore!' Unfortunately, for me, everyone was already running in the direction of the scream and I did not want to be by myself in the woods where there was possible more shriek inspiring things.

"That's Mai's voice!" I heard Jounochi growl as he ran far out of ahead of us.

Yuugi was also surprisingly ahead for such short legs, although if the rumors around school are true it was probably because he has had so much practice running from bullies.

"Who's Mai?" I yelled to Honda, who was closest to me. I was in the way back. I'm not used to a lot of running or hard labor. Spirit had always taken care of those kinds of situations for me. He would yell and call me a weakling, but he was always there when the next problem arose.

"She's the hottest girl you will ever meet!" Honda yelled back to me.

Ah, so that's why all the guys were rushing off so fast to her aid. "She's kind of annoying and manipulative though," he added. All right then. We are going to blindly rush off into the forest, in the middle of the night, to save a woman that they only like for her looks. What had I gotten myself into this time?

"Mai-san!" Yuugi called out worriedly,

"Yuugi!" a female voice called back.

"Are you hurt! What happened!" Jounochi yelled pushing his way to the front again.

Ahead of me everyone had stopped, so I guess that meant we had reached our destination. Huffing and panting from running so far, just after using all my energy in a shadow game and not having eaten in THREE days because Spirit could never remember I needed to eat I looked up to see the cause of all the commotion.

A few feet ahead of me was a gigantic duel arena and with two people standing by it. The ugliest guy I had ever seen in my life was holding up by the arm a woman with long, wavy, golden, blonde hair, eyes closed in shame and as Honda had said the hottest woman, I had ever seen. The guy was huge, at least seven feet tall and maxed out in muscles, but not in the good-looking way. As I said this was the UGLIEST guy I had ever seen, he was more muscular in the 'he's taken way too many steroids' way. He had muscles on his eyebrows! On top of that, he had greasy blue hair sticking up everywhere and tiny, beady black eyes. I prayed that this disgusting thug had not hurt Miss Mai.

"She was just denying the inevitable". Mr. Blue haired creep (As I was now calling him) said in response to Jounochi's questioning. "But it appears someone better has shown up." he continued, now leering at Yuugi. The guy was giving me the creeps. The fact that they were by a duel arena and because he was holding starchips led me to believe that they had simply dueled and now he sought Yuugi as an opponent, but that look in his eyes said he wanted to rape us all. When is this terrible night going to end?

"Who the hell is this guy?" Honda said, finally asking the million-dollar question.

"Be careful!" Mai shouted to us. "He's a Player Killer who takes all a duelers starchips!" She continued. I let out a sigh of relief. As long as he was just metaphorically killing us I did not really care. The worst thing that could happen in the dark woods with a giant creep was not loosing a tournament. Yuugi obviously thought different.

"Player killer?" he asked nervously. I did not see why he was worried. Mr. Blue haired freak or _Player Killer _could not force him to duel and the woman was unharmed.

"Yuugi" the player called in his ultra creepy rapist voice.

"I'm going to eliminate you the same way I did this woman." He was being way to dramatic about a card game. When you are fighting for your life in a shadow game, a little drama is expected. Your soul and possibly others were on the line. That need to be took seriously. Surely, not everyone was this elaborate about every card game. Were they?

"Fight me!" Beady eyes commanded.

"E...eliminate? It can't be." Anzu said finally catching on to the situation at hand.

"Mai-san" Yuugi said with sympathy. He obviously understood the pain she felt at her defeat.

"Yuugi, I'm finished here" She confirmed, sadness and pain evident in her voice. "My dream of fighting you doesn't matter anymore." Was her dream really to defeat a sixteen-year-old boy in a card game? This woman's goals were as odd as Spirits. I played duel monsters and I enjoyed it, but I was never the competitive type. The pain Mai felt, the pain Yuugi could sympathize with, I had never felt that. It made me feel oddly distant from the group

"Talk like that befits a losing dog like you." The steroid abuser said throwing Mai away from him. She let out a light scream of pain before stumbling to the ground

Suddenly I could feel waves of anger. Next to me was Jounochi, looking completely enraged.

"You son of a bitch" Jounochi growled.

If my years with Spirit had taught me anything, it was what pure violent rage looked like. Knowing what was about to happen next I quickly made a grab for Jounochi just before he lunged at the disgusting thug. Honda must be familiar with violent tempers as well because he had also jumped to restrain Jounochi. He struggled, but we kept a firm hold on him.

I felt a satisfaction at keeping Jounochi from causing harm. Not only at that I had handled a situation myself that Spirit would have normally taken care of, but I had restrained him. It was an ever-pleasant feeling to be completely in control. I had restrained Jounochi in a way I had never been able to restrain Spirit. I had taken control and with that revelation a bright light appeared in front of me, showing me all the possibilities that could be, now that I had my body to myself.

"Let me go! I'm gonna kick the shit out of him!" Jounochi yelled still trying to break free.

There was nothing I hated more then violence. Forced, unwillingly for years to commit it had made my hatred grow stronger.

"Wait. That's not the way to settle this." I said trying to be soothing. The fact that he was trying to elbow me in the ribs did not make it easy.

"But...!" he yelled exasperated. I could feel his conviction waning and the waves of fury I had felt earlier were not as strong.

"It can't be helped." I said firmly yet sympathetically. The desire to win a card game was one I could not understand. Wanting to help a friend fiercely and having no idea how to do it, I could relate to though. My words must have finally reached him because he relaxed within my grasp.

"Jounochi-kun" Yuugi said. His small voice coming out of nowhere made us all turn to look. "Bakura-kun is right." I noticed there was sadness in his voice. "Leave this to me.," he said as he slowly walked to the player killer with his head down, Blonde bangs covering his eyes. Why did he walk as if he were facing the guillotine?

When he reached the freak, he stared up at the steroid giant with giant amethyst eyes. There was a flash and Yuugi was no longer Yuugi.

Replacing him was someone taller, with narrower eyes, confidence oozing off him and a smirk on his face. I recognized him as the Yuugi who had dueled Spirit.

The group was obviously still oblivious of the existence of the different soul within Yuugi, since they continued to call him Yuugi.

I realized the reason for Yuugi's sadness. He knew he could not help his friends and he knew the spirit could. In a way, he HAD walked the guillotine. Walked to the edge of a cliff and let himself fall. That was what it felt like to let it happen. To be completely at your others mercy and have to say, "I can't do this, please help." Was that not the same as killing yourself? Didn't a little piece of you die when you let another person be you? I could still remember clearly my first time...

_I had not yet been aware of Spirit, but it was hard not to notice that the people who bother you, the ones you wish would disappear...Suddenly did. _

_I was not the only one who noticed. _

_People noticed that odd things happened to kids who hung around me. One person decided to do something about it. I did not know if he was the older brother of someone that had been harmed because of me or simply someone who took it as his duty to get rid of the town menace, but whatever the reason a boy much older then me and much stronger then me, decided he was going to beat me to death._

_I was young; I was in pain and was sure I was going to die a bloody crumpled mess on the ground. I was so sure I was going to die...I started screaming "Please help me!" but I wasn't screaming in hopes of attracting attention from passerbyers, they were all my enemies anyway. I was screaming to the one whom I did not yet know how to communicate with, the one who knew how to make problems go away. "Please do it..." I whispered no longer having the strength to scream. "Make it go away, make Him go away." Please ...do it." _

_"PLEASE! SAVE ME! I managed to yell with my last bit of energy._

_Time had stopped. I was no longer feeling the intense pain of the beating and I was not lying crumpled in the mud. _

_I was in darkness when a figure appeared. He looked like me, but more confident, his eyes were narrow and a lighter shade of brown the mine, they were full of mysteries and wisdom I would never understand. It was as if the very essence of those mysteries swam in his eyes, and they created white wisps that diluted the color. His hair was more like sharp daggers then the fluffy texture of mine, there was a smirk resting on his face. I knew instantly that He had never sat and taken a beating._

_"You want me to stop this. Correct? His voice was confident, smooth and sweet as dripping poison. A voice that was used to giving orders and having them followed or else. All I could do was nod to this other me, who was so much more confident._

_"Let me tell you what that entails first." He commanded. "I will have to use your body. You will still be here, but I will be in control and I will do as I please, but I will make this thug go away and keep you safe."_

_I gasped at that. Someone else would be using my body? Someone else acting as me? Who was I if I was not completely me?_

_He saw the fear in my expression and gave me an ultimatum I had never forgotten._

_"You can keep this body all to yourself if that's what you want. If you command me to go away I will never bother for the rest of your life." I could not imagine commanding the powerful being in front of me to do anything._

_"But." he added, "The rest of your life may not be as long as you think. Look at what I've pulled you from." A light swirled within the darkness and I saw ...me. My body was getting a merciless pummeling in the real world as we sat her talking; I cringed as I saw myself cough blood. _

_"You can refuse my offer and return to that," he said gesturing to the vision of suffering _

_"Or let me take over and save your life." Perhaps there was still doubt in my face because what he said next was much sterner. _

_"Do you want to die or live?" he asked._

_"Because that is your choice. You tell me to leave, I go away, you return to reality to be beaten until you bleed to death or he smashes your skull, all because you were scared of losing your identity. On the other hand, you could choose to live. You take a little nap and wake up to find all the pain gone and the problem solved." _

_I looked into his eyes, looked at the knowing smirk and knew what it meant to make a deal with the devil. _

_"I want to live!" I hollered._

_"Good." he replied. I felt myself slip out of consciousness to the lullaby of a cocky laugh._

_I would awake later in my own room, properly bandaged and taken care of. Remembering that events that led me there I cried for the unknown fate of my would-be murderer, I cried for the unknown fate of me._

_I would cry myself to sleep as a voice in my head said. "Don't worry you can take back our deal at anytime, command me to go away whenever you desire. However, remember what happens when I Go Away. HAHAHAHAHA"_

Yes, I know how Yuugi felt. I knew the feeling of giving up. Yuugi however had one plus going for him. When he looks back, he will remember unleashing his other self to protect his friends. I will always remember my first day, as unleashing an evil to protect only myself.


	3. Nothing will last forever

A/N- A special thanks to ACE329, author of my favorite story 'Ryou's story' (One of the best stories on fanfiction, If you like my story you will love it, if you hate my story you will love it. It is amazing.)For reading and reviewing after I told her, she was an inspiration. An extra special thanks to Lantu, my first and only repeat reviewer. If it makes you happy, I will dedicate all my chapters to you! Enjoy people.

Disclaimer-I do not own YU-Gi-Oh! I am just a nobody telling you how I think Ryou's first day of being free of the spirit of the ring might have went.

Yes Yuugi, I understand how you feel, to wonder if you are even worthy of your own body, when it is clear someone else can use it so much better.

The spirit that resided in Yuugi faced down the player killer, he stood tall and arrogantly in front of him. I saw his face and flinched. He wore the same smirk that Spirit wore. In fact, he had the same arrogant stance, the same confidence oozing out of him. I even heard the same I-give-orders-you-follow-them tone when he said,

"Don't worry Mai, I'll defeat this loud mouth and get your starchips back for you."

I felt an instant dislike for him. It felt like it was in my nature to dislike him. I reminded myself that he had saved my life a few minutes ago. He could have simply won the game and not given a damn witch soul was lost I told myself, but then again, Spirit has saved me multiple times as well. The fact that I owed my life to what were basically poltergeists bothered me.

No, the fact was his similarities to Spirit were what were bothering me. Not only did it make me feel concerned for Yuugi's welfare, it was also bringing back the present guilt.

I knew Spirit was a menace to society. I knew that if I had acted any differently during the game, all my friends would be dead in the shadow realm and I did not want THAT.

It was just that Spirit had done a lot for me. I had to give a lot back in return, but still.

Spirit had done the one thing nobody else in my life had done. Been there. Not in a comforting, friendship kind away. He was simply there, a constant in my life, but no one else had even done that much.

Amane and Mother died. Father was constantly away. I had an ever-changing amount of nannies that used the money for their own selfish gain that Father had given them to support me. They gave me the bare minimum for survival, threatened, and abused me to make sure I never told on them. As if anyone was here long enough for me to tell. Relative to relative passed me on like a constant burden because the people who gave birth to me did not care enough to raise me.

Through all that, I relied heavily on Spirit. He had been the one that made sure that when I went to bed hungry because the nannies didn't want to waste their money feeding me, I woke up to a pile of (most likely stolen) food. He was the one who stopped the abuses from going to far. The one who, whenever I had to leave a friend who I was particularly attached to, made sure I would always feel their presence and as I said the one who was always there. I had a childish habit of every night asking-

"Are you still there?" Wondering when he, like everything else in my life would go away. Every night I would receive the same annoyed answer.

"Yes. Now sleep so the body will be strong." Of course, our relationship was not cream and roses.

I had often awoken see my problems violently solved. Spirit could have just taken their soul and placed it somewhere else if he felt it was really necessary for a life to take a life, but he did not often let them pass so easily. After Spirit became part of life I was introduced to the horrors of what a real corpse looked like, to limbs bent in ungodly ways, of faces forever frozen in horror and heart clenching fear, of how much blood a human body held, of how it looked covering every inch of a body. I saw a grown man bang his head against a wall until it cracked begging to make the visions stop, sobbing and crying the whole time.

I begged Spirit to be less violent, I tried to compromise that if he could only use enough force to stop the problem, and then get me out of there, that would be great. I pleaded to make the deaths stop. Why did others have to die in my place? I just wanted to live, to survive this awful childhood.

He would offer me no sympathy. He would look down coldly at my begging, pleading and tears and respond, "If you don't like the way I solve your problems, solve them yourself."

I was too weak to do it though. I could not fight hard enough so that Spirit would not have to do it for me, I could not stand up for myself long enough to tell Spirit to let me live my own life whether it got me killed or not.

Spirit solved problems, he created new ones, but the fact of the matter was that there was only one person who stuck with me long enough to know me completely, one person who stayed long enough for me to know them and I had sacrificed him for people I hardly knew.

I wished I had taken the hit. That's what I had wanted. I wanted to pay for the people I did not save, to live and for it not be at another's expense, but the plan backfired! Now I was living at Spirits expense! That was why I could not stop thinking about him and feeling guilty, I finally realized. My plan to take a final stand and take my own punches had failed epically. That was why I could not stop thinking of him.

I would have to stop letting it bother me. Spirit was in the shadows so I wouldn't be, but he would be the last one. From now on Ryou Bakura lived his own life, nobody else did. He handled his own situations and took the consequences for them.

I forced all my distaste for Yuugi's body-mate out from me. This man had given me my second chance. I had wanted to die to prove I could live my own life but he had given me an opportunity to live proving I could live my own life. I watched him walk to the duel arena, smirk still on his face in a way that said not only would he win but also he would not even be challenged. I did not allow that walk to remind me of Spirit.

Yuugi's Other self and the Player killer had entered the giant duel arena. While the Other Yuugi stood across from him, arms crossed with a fierce glare that did NOT remind me of a certain 5,000-year-old thief, the possible rapist tried to intimidate him with a speech.

"Hehehe, Even now we player killers are defeating duelist across the island. Mutou Yuugi, defeating you will not take the best of my skill. I am very lucky." he bragged.

"Well with a suspicious person like you around, there's one thing I do know" The spirit of the puzzle started, arms still crossed and eyes closed, as if the 'suspicious person' was a vermin not worthy to be in his line of sight. Then his eyes flew open in hatred as he said, "If Pegasus is using people like you he is truly despicable."

"Your a fool!" said the unworthy one." This all has to do with Industrial illusions," He said as if that cleared everything up. "Master Pegasus's commands are absolute. Once you are defeated, there is nothing to stop Pegasus from gaining complete control. You are finished here! "He prophesied.

"No, YOU'RE finished here" Said the spirit that resided in Yuugi.

'Nice come back Spirit.' I thought. Then I gasped in horror.

That is NOT Spirit I reminded myself. Not my Spirit anyway. I wondered briefly, what Yuugi called him. I knew why I had made the mistake though. On top of all the similarities in their actions, that is just the sort of thing Spirit would say in one of his moods.

Usually Spirit had a very calm anger, like a razor slowly cutting across your chest. He was the kind of person who when pissed off, would laugh it off and when you turned around he would serenely pick up a gun, shoot you in the head and then laugh some more. Even when he tortured, he never did so in a blind rage, but on occasion, if you made him angry by surprise, you could see him get frustrated in a truly human way.

_"Dammit, host! How the hell, did you manage to get yourself locked on the damn roof with a wild dog, you effing trouble magnet!" _

You could see him spouting off curses, his words an angry mix of Arabic and Japanese. It was interesting to see. Not so interesting to be on the receiving side of. While I was reminiscing, the two duelists continued their battle of wits, forgetting to actually start the duel.

"I will not lose. I will defeat Pegasus!" Yuugi's other self was saying.

"You may believe that now. However, do you really think you can defeat me while I am in darkness? Said beady eyes trying to be spooky.

"Darkness?" The tri haired hair colored wonder questioned.

"Yuugi, be careful! That's...! Mai tried to warn him, but Greasy Hair cut her off.

"On this island, no duelist has been able to touch me in this dark night! If you are not prepared, the darkness will have no mercy on you and snatch your soul away. That woman is the perfect example," he said.

In response, Yuugi's body-mate grinned. "Listen up loudmouth." he commanded. "Only a cowardly thief would do his dirty work in darkness."

'Only a stupid one would do it in broad daylight.' I thought. I had spent waaaaaay to much time with Spirit.

"What did you say, you damn kid!" The loudmouth hollered.

"I'll teach you what happens when you wound the pride of duelist!" Promised the self-proclaimed defender of duelist pride.

"You little..." Player killer said, starting to growl.

"In this duel I'm going to bet all six of my star chips! The other Yuugi proclaimed.

"Like hell! I took eight starchips from that woman! I'm going to bet all of them." Was the response.

"What?" questioned the spirit of the puzzle a little confused. In truth so was I.

"Since you can't match that, I'm going to take this instead!"

He pushed a button and suddenly chains came out to feet cuff Other Yuugi's legs and flames erupted from the arena. What the hell was going on?

"When you lose this duel, you'll be burned by the fires from the darkness of hell!"

The bloody Psychopath! He can't just burn people to death for losing a damn game! What is wrong with people in this world and what the hell have I got myself into?


	4. Define weird

A/N-Hey people! Welcome back.

To ACE329: Thanks for the encouragement it means a lot from you.

To stungun milly: Thank you for the grammar corrections! I really appreciate that! I am going into AP English (I am supposed to be working on a book report for it right now) and I hope to major in literature, maybe be an editor one day. So if you catch my mistakes, tell me. I do not care if you say it in the meanest flame there is. I will love you for it. But what did you mean by my Ryou's unconventional? I thought he was pretty standard.

Disclaimer- I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, if I did, there would be a lot more of Ryo-Chan.

Thanks people and enjoy!

I attempted to freak out. I really did. I tried to act like everyone else, panicking and yelling. That was what normal people did when they saw odd stuff like that. I continued to stare at the feet cuffed spirit of the puzzle while giant flames shot out at him, the Player killer (More literal then I originally thought) laughed menacingly, and I felt...nothing. Damn.

All I could do was let out a sympathetic and slightly worried "Yuugi-kun." and be glad that for once it was not me.

I could not help it; Spirit had dragged me through way to many odd situations for me to find anything weird. (Once you wake up tied naked to a roller coaster, nothing is odd anymore.) Besides, by now, I should expect that my luck would make it so that the one person that could get me away from Spirit gets into worse situations then he does.

Poor Yuugi must have it bad too. I severely hoped that this was as high as the weirdness level for the situations Yuugi and his friends got themselves into goes. The calm expression on the other Yuugi's face as flames continued to shoot at him did not convince me. Oh well. If Yuugi's body-mate can protect four souls while battling Spirit in a shadow game, he can handle the Pyro of Darkness.

The flames had stopped and the group's insults on the Pyro of Darkness (That is his official name now.) continued. As if saying it was unfair was going to get anything done.

"Everyone you have to believe in Yuugi!" I yelled over their whining, hoping my annoyance would be mistaken for passion.

Nothing we did could make it better at this point; so we should just believe in the other Yuugi. I had always trusted Spirit to get me out of any situation he said he would get me out of and noting their similarities, I felt Yuugi's Spirit would do as well as my own. "That's all we can do." I said voicing my thoughts.

The real Yuugi would have the toughest time of it. Watching and hoping while HIS body was on the line. I hoped he knew how to make himself willingly unconscious. It was easier like that sometimes.

Yuugi's other self agreed to the duel despite the fact that he or more importantly his host would be burned alive if he were to lose. I had thought it brave when the puzzle's spirit risked his life fighting Spirit, but apparently, he stakes his life on games often.

After watching, the duel a few minutes I concluded that the giant holograms made the duel far more complicated then they had to be. The Pyro of Darkness was able to summon a card that covered the whole field in darkness, therefore hiding what monsters he was using. The Other Yuugi was trying to illuminate the field with a dragon card and failing. If this had been a normal card game he could have just looked over and saw for himself, but Kaibacorp had to go and make things difficult.

Yuugi's other self was obviously also getting annoyed by this because he yelled, "Without the Darkness you wouldn't be able to do anything! You're a coward!"

In response, The Pyro of Darkness shot another stream of fire at The Other Yuugi, which he calmly dodged. The Pyro of Darkness patronized him with comments like, "You'll shut your mouth if you don't want to die."

It sounded like something Spirit would say. Speaking of Spirit, Yuugi's other self was now wearing Spirit's smile. It was not a friendly smile. I am sure Spirit does not own one of those, even in his sleep he scowls. He wore the smile my body had worn when Spirit prepared to punish someone with exceptional cruelty, the one he gave me when he sealed me in the card. It was the 'You are fucking dead' smile. When you received that smile, you were not dead. You were FUCKING dead. Seeing the infamous smile startled The Pyro of Darkness, but it was too late for him to amend his mistakes.

"I've found a way to turn you into a trembling, losing dog." said the other Yuugi. "I'm going to show you the true meaning of Darkness," he added even more maliciously. "True...Darkness..." I said aloud completely captivated by him, though it was only a whisper. I had a feeling that for all the Pyro of Darkness's talks of darkness, he did not understand it half as much as the spirit did. I had the sudden sensation that he WAS Darkness. Darkness... Yami...The name suited him. I would never again think of him as "The other Yuugi" because he was not. He was darkness, something completely different and separate from his pure host. "You have 5 more turns to live." Yami warned. The Pyro of Darkness laughed it off, but we all saw terror in his eyes.

Yami continued with his speech boasting about the future use of the card "Swords of revealing light" True darkness does not hide behind its darkness, it uses it and its opposite light to its advantage, I approved. Anzu though, was getting nervous about Yami's revealing his strategy to his opponent.

"Mai-san, is it really okay for him to do this? She asked.

After a long silence, she answered "Perhaps. Yuugi's using a tactic other then cards to break through the darkness in this duel."

This confused the rest of the group. "'A tactic other then cards' what do you mean?" Jounochi asked.

"It has to be words," I answered for Mai, never taking my eyes off the duel.

I was grateful that Mai did the rest of the explaining. Spotlight was not my thing, though if I wanted to make friends I really should not clamp up like that.

"Yuugi-kun's using words to break through the darkness. That's his true trump card for defeating this darkness." I said so they would not think I was shunning them to live in my own private world.

Had they not noticed how Yami's words unnerved The Pyro of Darkness, had they not reasoned that such unnerving and resulting desperateness to cover it up would lead to mistakes and that those mistakes would break The Pyro of Darkness's strategy, clearing a path for the waiting Yami to annihilate him? It was obvious, though I did not believe for one second that Yami was merely bluffing. Every threat was truth, yet unnerving all the same.

The Pyro of Darkness was making a mistake, as I predicted now. Yami had placed down a card and assuming it was the swords of revealing light he had boasted over earlier, The Pyro of Darkness (Can we just call him P.O.D.? The name is more annoying then I suspected.) Used a magic card eraser to destroy it. While the rest of the group screamed, thinking Yuugi had just lost his trump card, I waited patiently for what I knew what was to come.

"I said Swords of Revealinglight was my trump card, I didn't say anything about playing it" Yami said smiling as he revealed the card to be the trap 'Hexagrams curse', binding POD's Magic Eraser. Yami had an "Oh yeah, I'm good" smile and his friends cheered for his wit. Mai looked amazed.

The game continued. Yami continued to mock POD, calling him names and counting down his turns left to live, in response POD would shoot more flames at him. It stopped being exiting for everyone around the third time. When Yuugi finally did play the Swords of revealing light he almost burned my Retinas off. I let out a muffled scream of pain. I had not seen any light but POD's flames in so long.

The game ended with Yami using Catapult turtle to launch his Dark night Gaia at POD's Castles floatation ring causing it to fall down on his monsters that he had unwittingly trapped behind a defensive wall. I was certain that this strategy would not work in a normal card game, but what was normal about tonight?

POD went psycho and set the entire arena on fire. We had to run away to dodge the flames and when we returned Yami was completely unharmed and POD missing. Nobody seemed surprised or said anything so I guess that my assumption that this happened a lot was correct.

Mai got her starchips back after some fuss, Jounochi, and Honda started a small fight. "Now, now" I warned them, happy to play peacekeeper, especially to people who listened.

Tonight had been weird, but I am sure tomorrow, my first real day without Spirit in a long time would be a good one.

That was when a helicopter almost blew our entire camp and us away.


	5. Ladies

A/N-Feel free to skip to the story instead of reading all this. Sorry I took so long. I was working on (as some of you already know) a little one-shot called 'Ew!

Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter even though it was by far the worst. I actually was having some trouble reading my reviews and it drove me crazy wondering what everyone was saying. Worst. Feeling. Ever.

Speaking of reviews. I know sometimes it is annoying to think up a review so you do not have to leave one, but how about this: leave a number 1-10, 1 being the lowest. Just leave a number and I will be happy. Nice compromise, right?

Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! When you see the originals only with Marik and Bakura shirtless, then I own it.

I attempted to go to sleep, but even with Spirit no longer inhabiting the ring, it continued to work against me.

I sighed and quietly stepped over to the clearing, careful not to wake up the three boys sleeping next to me. All of us, except The Lady Anzu, were sleeping on the ground outside.

Mai had given us her tent, saying something about having no rest until she had enough star chips to get in, and payback Yuugi.

We all had been very grateful until Anzu had said, "You're not going to make a lady sleep outside, right?" This confused us. Of course, we were not going to make her sleep in the cold while we slept warm in the tent and we assured her of that fact immediately. Then she said, "Thanks guys, but you see, it wouldn't be proper for a lady to sleep in a tent alone with four teenage boys."

The hint was obvious, _The Lady_, slept inside, while us boys slept outside.

Yuugi and I rapidly assured her that none of us would dream of touching her while she slept, blushing profusely at the thought and Jounochi started yelling that 'What sane man would try to touch an annoying woman like her?'

Unfortunately her decision was finale, either we slept outside, or she did and 'Were the tough men going to sleep inside and force a poor, defenseless woman to sleep outside in the dirt with wild animals and creeps like the guy who kidnapped Mai on the loose?'

Our prides would not allow us to pursue the argument with her any farther.

I prepared to make the best of it, found a nice, soft clump of grass to sleep on near the tent, where the rest of the boys were sleeping, when the ring started glowing and one of the points levitated upwards.

I had to step away before the glowing woke the other boys up. Safely a good distance away, I pulled off the ring, before the levitating point pierced through my shirt.

That is why I wore the thick woolen shirt, it masked the ring's glow better and it would not easily rip when pierced.

From the particular point that was glowing, I could tell the millennium eye was the one causing the ruckus. Each point showed the direction of a different Item with the ring excluded and the scale and ankh combined; Spirit said those two were together. The fact that the point was glowing meant the eye was in use.

_"You're going to help me find the other items Host, when the ring glows, we follow. _

I pushed the memory away. I was no longer Spirits 'Host'; I did not need to go anywhere. I would sit here for all eternity for the sheer defiance of it.

Suddenly I was not alone. Trapped in my thoughts I did not notice that Yuugi had come and was now sitting by my side, large amethyst eyes boring into me.

"Are you okay, Bakura-kun?" He asked.

Only Yuugi would care so much.

It was a little late to hide the ring so I said, "Look at this, the ring is pointing towards Pegasus's castle."

I was not sure it was Pegasus's castle, but I had to assume it was since it was on his island and Pegasus's eye was in it. Yuugi stared at the ring dumbfounded.

"You're right." He said mystified. I suppose his puzzle did not do anything odd. Except of course house an ancient spirit.

"It did that the first day I transferred to Domino High school." I said, trying to hint the rings ability without actually saying anything. I wanted to mention Spirit as little as possible. I wanted Yuugi to trust me, if he knew how much Spirit was on my mind he might not, maybe he shouldn't. Yuugi was looking at me, searching for an explanation, so I dove into the memory.

How could I forget? Before I met Yuugi, Spirit was annoying, after that, it was down right unbearable.

I had to transfer schools once again because Spirit had acted up. Some boys I used to hang out with decided that the games I played were lame and they did not want to play with me anymore. It had upset me of course, but I had not said anything.

Unfortunately, it is somewhat hard to hide your emotions from the person you share your body and mind with on a regular basis. The next day I awoke to find the five unconscious bodies of my old friends around a game of 'Monster world'. Spirit responded to my questioning gaze with "I asked them to one last game for old times sake, if they had not thought it 'lame' and practiced more, they would not be in this situation."

That many kids at once did not go as unrecognized as usual. A rumor broke out that the apartment complex's air was contaminated. Father was worried about my health and set me up in a new apartment in the next town over, which happened to be Domino city. That was father for you; he loved me enough to buy me anything in the world, just not enough to spend time with me.

I had not met Yuugi until the second day of school. The first day of school, I was busy dodging my new fan girls. If it was not bullies, it was fan girls. I preferred the bullies honestly. The bullies would throw some punches, make lame insults, which was bearable, everyone had been through it at least once in their life. Fan girls on the other hand would stand in front of your desk telling you about their day when you could not care less, or stand in clusters to look at you giggling. They ask to touch your hair and they surround you at lunch to make you eat their home cooked meals. They steal your clothes at gym and then you have to deal with jealous boyfriends and envious guys who wished girls would fawn over them.

I definitely do not like fan girls.

I had come to school early; with a reputation like mine, it was important to make a good impression. There were some other kids there early as well, standing around talking or playing games, waiting for the teacher to come in.

Suddenly the ring started glowing and a point levitated. The ring was underneath my school's uniform jacket, which was made of a thin material that threatened to break. I quickly took it out and stared at it confused. It had never done that before and Spirit and I had not had our talk about the items yet.

Luckily, for me Spirit was not even awake for this. He found school boring and after going through it all day yesterday, making sure my problems would not go any farther then a few giggling schoolgirls, was sleeping in, and most likely planning on taking over later that night. Although the anticipation clawed at me. I wondered all day what would happen when he finally woke up, read my memories, and saw the strange event. I was nerve racked all day about what that meant for us.

I followed the points pull across the classroom, carrying it in my hand. Finally, I saw the object that inspired the gravitational pull. The ring was pointing toward a golden pyramid hanging around a small boy's neck.

That was the start of my friendship with Yuugi.

I was staring back and forth between my ring and Yuugi's puzzle trying to understand what I was supposed to do. I was so scared that I had done something wrong that I could not find it in me to ask Spirit. I had only been at the school two days and I did not want him making me leave just yet.

Yuugi caught my glance and thought my stare was for the game, rather then the pendent of the strange boy playing it.

"HI! I am Yuugi, You're the new kid, right? I hope you like Domino high school so far, we're playing Duel Monsters, Do you play? If you do, you can play winner if you want, if you don't you can play loser and I'll walk you through it, it's a fun game!

He said all this in one long, chipper breath. It was hard to resist Yuugi's always-cheerful smile and 'lets be friends' attitude he was always radiating.

I realized that though in my reminiscing, I had forgotten to elaborate. Yuugi was still staring at me patiently.

"On the day we met, my ring was pointing at your puzzle." I said, abridging the memory.

"So, right now the ring is pointing to Pegasus's millennium item?" he said getting the point.

"Millennium items…" I said feigning confusion. I did not want to trick Yuugi. I liked him and he would probably be the only person that could even remotely understand my problems with the ring, but I wanted to see what he knew about the items and I still did not want to show how wrapped up in this mess I was. I wanted to see what common knowledge to him was, what was okay to mention and what I should keep to myself.

"It could be that the power of the millennium ring is to detect other millennium Items," he said, 'It can do more then that' I thought, but that was good. The ring was only an item detector around Yuugi from now on.

"Just what are the millennium items, where do they come from?" I probed trying to get more out of him.

"I really don't know anything." I said trying to encourage him.

In response, Yuugi smiled at me apologetically and nodded.

"Er…you see...Neither do I. Mou Hitouri no Boku, that is, the Spirit of the puzzle…We don't really…Talk. Hey I'm tired, why don't we go to sleep, we should sleep here so we don't bother Jounochi and Honda going back and so if your ring starts glowing again it won't wake anyone up." He said the last part as an obvious attempt to change the subject. I let it go and complied, putting the ring back on and lying down in the clearing next to Yuugi.

Before I had a chance get comfortable though, a giant gust of wind that was so strong that it pushed Yuugi and me a good eight feet away, rushed across the clearing.

Looking up we saw that it was a large helicopter hovering above us that was creating the disturbance. Jounochi woke up and started yelling,

"Who the hell is flying a helicopter at this time of night?"

Even The Lady Anzu graced us with her presence by poking her head out of the tent to see what was going on. Was it ladylike to yell, "What the hell is going on?"

The helicopter landed right in front of us and out emerged…


	6. What we are

A/N- Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews and enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, Jounochi would have given Kaiba a punch like the one he did to Yami in episode 158.

From the helicopter emerged...

Well frankly, I did not know who he was. He had short brown hair, with long bangs half-covering narrow blue eyes. His mouth was set in a hard line and his eyes a fierce glare. He was wearing a black shirt and black pants covered by a purple trench coat, whose coat tails were blowing in the wind.

Though I did not recognize him, the rest of the group seemed to, for there was recognition in their shocked stares.

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi yelled excitedly. He ran up to the taller man so happy and exited I thought he was going to jump into his arms. He did not though and stopped a few feet before him smiling happily up at him.

'Kaiba' I wondered. Does he mean THE Kaiba? The teenage president of his own company? I looked at the way he gripped his brief case and his cold eyes and definitely saw him barking orders. I wondered how the group knew the famous multi-billionaire and creator of the duel monsters holograms.

"It's been awhile, Yuugi." The possible celebrity said softly, as he looked down at the boy with something like guilt in his eyes.

Yuugi nodded in agreement still looking happy. "Oh!" Yuugi said suddenly, reached into his pocket, and brought up a deck of cards.

"Here Kaiba, these are your cards, I've kept them safe for you." The thief in me, and for once that is completely metaphorical, wondered if he took any of his good cards first. One look at Yuugi's sweet, beaming face, proud that he had helped his friend gave me my answer.

"At any rate I guess I should thank you." Kaiba said awkwardly, obviously not knowing how to respond to Yuugi's famous 'let's all be friends smile.'

Kaiba started to walk off but before he could get anywhere Yuugi yelled, "You've realized the heart of the cards, haven't you?"

'Heart of the cards'. What did he mean by that? It sounded familiar; I believe Yami might have said something about it while dueling Spirit. I do not remember the exact context though, since at the point I had been trying to drone out Spirit's complaints of how pathetic I looked in comparison to the way he once did. I know I am pale, it is genetic, the only other color I can be is bright pink with sunburn, I have learned to accept it.

Kaiba stopped walking and there was a brief silence.

"What's wrong?" Yuugi asked worriedly.

"I can't answer that...Not until I'm able to protect Mokuba and Kaiba corporation...If I can defeat Pegasus, then I will know." That must mean he is the famous president. He said it very calm, he had a lot at stake, but he was not acting rashly about it, even as he went to save his brother he walked calmly with a cool air about him.

Jounochi suddenly ran up to Kaiba and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt interrupting this dignified exit. I had not noticed his anger this time fast enough to stop him. "Hold it right there, Kaiba." he said yelling angrily right in his face. I considered going up there and trying to drag him away before he hurt Kaiba, but he was opening his mouth to speak not raising a fist to punch, so I decided to wait for him to get whatever was bothering him off his chest.

"Everyone in duelist kingdom has to have ten starchips to have a shot at Pegasus and to get what they want, Whatever your reasons are I won't let you think you're better then everyone else!"

It suddenly hit why Jounochi was taking so much offence to Kaiba's actions. Jounochi had his sister on the line and Yuugi his grandfather, yet they still had to go through the motions. They had to wait around Playing Pegasus's games when they wanted to take action. It was unfair that they had just as much on stake, but Kaiba was able to just walk up to the castle and get what he wanted without being forced to follow Pegasus's rules like us.

Suddenly Kaiba grabbed Jounochi's hand from his collar, twisted it far back, and with one hand threw him across the clearing.

"Jounochi-kun!" I yelled full of anger and worry, the first to react. I liked Jounochi, probably more then I liked anyone else in the group. Yuugi would be the one I could talk with. The one who would sympathize with me, but there was so much anger inside Jounochi, a need to strike out and in return, I felt a need to soothe him, to stop him from being violent and help him. He was a good person who was going about solving his problems in the wrong way. There were enough bad people in the world causing violence; the few good people did not need to cause it as well. I did not want well meaning Jounochi to end up with a disposition like Spirit. I wanted better for him. It really upset me to see Jounochi treated like that.

Kaiba should not have thrown Jounochi. Jounochi controlled himself, he did not strike Kaiba, but expressed himself with words and he rewarded him with violence. First Kaiba insults him with his haughty thinking that he is the only person with someone they care about, and then he degrades Jounochi by throwing him like a worthless dog.

I forced myself not to move from my position. I knew that if I allowed myself even one step, I would not go to help my friend; I would punch Kaiba in the face.

I wished Spirit were here. The thought shocked me. I was trying not to commit violence and I wanted the one person that was sure to force me to commit it? It was crazy...but true. I wanted Kaiba to pay and I wanted it not to be my fault. Spirit would do that for me.

_If you do not like the way I solve your problems, solve them yourself._

I complained that Spirit was violent. Yet, he needed to be, because I could not. For so long Spirit had taken everything out of my hands, made every trouble but him simply disappear. Now I had a dilemma. I wanted something done and no one was there to do it for me. I had to solve my own problems by myself. Spirit was not going to take control and I was not going to wake up to find my wish granted. If I thought Kaiba deserved a punch in the face I had to be the one to do it and if I thought that was wrong and not the way to handle things then I had to sit here and control myself. This was new to me.

No wonder he called me pathetic. I WAS pathetic. That day...that day I agreed to let him help me, I had not gained a bodyguard; I had given up my free will. WILLINGLY! I stopped trying once I thought someone would do it for me. I let myself be coddled and protected, slowing allowing my personality to be tucked away in the far reaches of my mind. Even the day of the fate deciding fight. Why had I not tried harder to run away? Why did I just sit there and call for help? Who is Ryou Bakura? Is he just a host for someone that actually does things with his life? What is he now that he is not even that?

As my revelation that I was so pathetic that I gave up free will because I could not handle my own life took place, the rest of the group got over their shock and reacted as well.

Yuugi ran over to Jounochi and knelt beside him, asking if he was alright.

Jounochi slowly got up and mumbled a "Shit."

"Jounochi, don't tell me you've entered this tournament as well? Kaiba said haughtily, looking down at him. As if Jounochi was not good enough to even attempt to do anything. Brave Jounochi, who sacrificed himself to the Man Eater Bug in the shadow game so none of his friends would have to, was not good enough in Kaiba's eyes.

I still wanted to punch Kaiba, but this time I wanted it to be me, my fist connecting with his face, me not being too pathetic to do it myself, but I wouldn't. Deep down I knew I was not violent, that I would not willing cause harm. It was not in my nature.

No one acted bothered, not even Jounochi himself, by what was happening,

"Screw you; I was in the best eight." Jounochi said while dusting himself off.

"That was just a neighborhood tournament Jounochi." Anzu said embarrassed for him.

Honda was giving Jounochi a 'You're an idiot look.'

"The duelists in this tournament are on a much higher level then you are." Kaiba told Jounochi. How would he know? He just got here.

"What was that?" Jounochi growled angrily.

"Stop it, Jounochi." Honda warned. I could not bring myself to help him. Who was I, the pathetic host to help anyone?

Kaiba began to walk away again. It did not look like a dignified exit to me this time; my respect for him had dropped too much for that. This time it just looked haughty and arrogant, each step he took materialized authority and ownership. As if he owned everywhere he walked, had the right to be anywhere he pleased, because he said so.

"Hold it Kaiba!" Jounochi yelled, interrupting Kaiba's exit once again. I thought he might go to grab Kaiba again, but he held his ground. I was not sure if this relieved me or worried me further. Obviously, I did not want Jounochi to act rough again, but that was his personality and I did not want to see his spirit broken by fear of Kaiba.

"I'm not the same person you knew before!" Jounochi yelled to Kaiba. So the two had history together. Could that history be the base for the ill will they seemed to feel for each other. There seemed to be many relationships that I did not know about going on.

"It's true Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi interjected. "Jounochi-kun defeated both Kujaku Mai and Dinosaur Ryuzaki." 'Mai.' I remembered. She was the woman we helped before. Jounochi seemed to care for her an awful lot for just an opponent he defeated.

Kaiba stopped and turned around to face Jounochi. He looked him over, eyeing him up and down, seemingly re-evaluating him. Jounochi noticed the examination and yelled, "Let's duel! If you want to defeat Pegasus you have to prove your worth by defeating me first!" This seemed to get a reaction out of them that seeing there friend thrown to the ground could not. Anzu and Honda ran over to Jounochi's side, I followed so I did not look like the only one who did not care about Jounochi when I was sure the only person more concerned about him then I was Yuugi.

"Don't do it Jounochi!" Honda said. "He'll rip you to pieces!" Anzu added. Why did they feel such a need to stop him? It was just a duel and Jounochi should not only show Kaiba that he couldn't treat him like trash, but that he wasn't, that he was strong enough to beat him. Jounochi ignored their words of discouragement and continued to provoke Kaiba. "What's wrong Kaiba? Fight me right here!" he growled.

"Interesting, since I'm impressed by your self-confidence, I'll do it." At least Kaiba had that much respect for others in him...

"Kaiba-kun..." said Yuugi in a warning tone.

"Don't worry Yuugi, I'm not going to duel him for star chips." Kaiba said. Then suddenly he held up his brief case in front of him for us to see. "I'm going to test the new duel disk I invented on Jounochi, a field test is much more valuable to me then his star chips." So first, he treats him like a dog, and then like a lab rat? Is he incapable of treating people like humans?

"A new duel disk system...?" Jounochi questioned.

Kaiba did not answer, but put his brief case down and opened it, the back was facing us so we could not see what was inside. Without warning, he took out a small disk and threw it at Jounochi, which, he caught with perfect reflexes.

"Attach that to your left hand." Kaiba commanded.

"What is it?" Jounochi asked before complying.

"The Duel Disk." Kaiba answered annoyed at having to explain himself. "It's the new card battle machine I created, with it, you can have a virtual simulation battle anywhere, without a duel ring," He said, now in a bragging tone. Kaiba threw another disk at us. Jounochi handed it to me so he could focus on getting the first one on his hand. "You haven't seen me duel with my new deck yet, watch me cream Kaiba," he said with a smile as he passed it to me. Kaiba explained how the duel disk worked and took the first turn for a better example. When he threw his disk to the ground, a giant Minotaur appeared. This exited Yuugi a lot. "Incredible! Kaiba-kun has taken dueling to the next level!" He yelled. Jounochi appeared excited too. "This is going to be awesome!" he yelled and summoned Armored Lizard.

However, Jounochi's confidence and the duel did not last long. Kaiba did not even seem to be dueling seriously, concentrating more on the effects of his creation rather then the battle. Jounochi played one easily destroyed card after another that was defeated easily by Kaiba's monster. Watching the duel made me want to yell 'Look at the points before you play it!' or at least 'Put the card in defense mode!' I was sad that my friend who had so much confidence in his abilities lost in such an amateur way. Kaiba was glaring down at Jounochi with perhaps disappointment mixed in with the hate in his eyes. I assumed with a personality like his he was about to gloat and I was right.

"Do you understand now, the terror of dueling me?" he began, pure loathing dripping off everyone word. "With such amateur skills, I can't see how you made it this far, Jounochi, seeing you groveling on the ground suits you, stay down you losing dog." I had expected gloating, but that went too far. My anger left me speechless; thankfully, it did not have the same effect on the others. Thank you Anzu.

Yuugi managed to get out a surprisingly angry "Kaiba-kun." before Anzu took over.

"Why, why would you say such things, just who do you think you are! Jounochi is fighting for something precious to him, SOMEONE precious to him, so do not act so high and mighty, as if you are the only person who should win, your not! Jounochi puts everything into his battles! She said it with such passion that there were tears in her eyes. Anzu had more to her then I gave her credit. "That's right; Jounochi is fighting to fix his sisters eyes!" Yuugi added in.

"Shut up!" Jounochi yelled, startling us all. "Don't say anything to him, he's not worth it.," he said more lowly, but more darkly.

In response to all this Kaiba just stood there and smirked. The bastard...

"Whatever reasons you have for dueling, keep them to yourself, the only important thing is gaining power and keeping it, Jounochi, it's fine to regret the duel you just had with me, however, until you open your eyes to the truth, you'll always be nothing more then a losing dog, I won't give you the benefit of the doubt again." Kaiba said all this without a trace of guilt or remorse in his eyes for tearing someone down like that.

All this hatred must have confused Yuugi because he said, "Kaiba why are you so..." Cruel? Heartless? Stotic? In need of therapy? I do not know what he would have said next because at that moment Kaiba pointed to Pegasus's castle and said, "Pegasus's castle, that's wear HE is, Pegasus J. Crawford, the creator of Duel Monsters. He created every rule and every card. His palace is where the dueler's eyes will awaken and gain what they wish, but playing against the god of the card kingdom is near impossible. Yuugi you cannot defeat him even with your skill. I have seen him duel once before...

A/n-I chose to end the chapter here for a very childish reason you will see as soon as you see the title to the next chapter. Before you go, there is something very important I need to tell you. Some decisions about the story need to be made and I am letting you guys vote, put your vote in the review or PM me. First is, should I put the story on a brief Hiatus? Before you say no, listen to why I would do so. I never finished watching Yu-Gi-Oh. When I first saw it when I was 10, I watched the 4kids version up to the battle Royale in battle city. I never thought of Yu-Gi-Oh again for about five years. Then a friend of mine had me read a story she was posting on here to see if it was good. Surprise, surprise it was about Yu-Gi-Oh. She used the Japanese names, which I did not recognize and when I asked her about it, she explained to me the '4kids is evil' thing and forced me to watch season 0. I watched it. It was amazing. I fell in love with Ryou. Miho and I said the same thing at the same time "What a pretty boy..." I needed more and started re-watching the series, which is where we are now. I am at episode 187. I have never seen the memory arc. I feel I can't tell this story to the best of my abilities until I've seen it, this story is about Bakura and most of what we know about his personality is in that arc. Would you guys rather I finished this story with my limited knowledge or finish watching and then go back to writing. With school starting I cannot do both. It is up to you guys and when I say brief I mean it. It will take about a week to finish.

The second thing: Should I get a Beta? I do not have spell check so I know my grammar and spelling are not the best and I think sometimes I am losing track of the plot. Do I need help? How should I go about asking? What did you guys do with your Beta's? Tell me what you think.

Ace329, Lantu, your votes count double. Send in your votes and thanks for reading.


	7. In America

A/N-Hi guys! If you have never seen Yu-Gi-Oh abridged or do not like stupid humor, you might want to skip this chapter.

All of you who paid attention to the chapter title know what I am about to do. I wanted to tell you guys that the votes are in, but did not want to write a lame author's note chapter, and I could not continue with the plot, so you guys got this.

First off, I will be taking the hiatus. Do not worry I am already at 197, in a few episodes I will get to watch smexy, shirtless Bakura. WHOO!... I mean do research on Bakura's personality and how that would apply to his relationship with Ryou...Yeah...It has nothing to do with seeing Bakura's chest...

As for the Beta, asking for helps illegal...In America!

Really guys though, this is my first fanfic and I am going to finish it myself, my own way. This is too important to me to share with anyone, but my readers. That is all.

Enjoy this brief, crappy chapter based on episode 11 of Yu-Gi-Oh abridged. My usual style will return in a few weeks.

Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh abridged, America, Canada, maple syrup, bacon, Cirque Du Sollie, children's card games, an American flag, or the game of hockey. If I did, I would probably screw them all up.

"You need to be careful Yuugi; I've seen Pegasus duel with my own eyes..."

Once upon a time in a magical land, where all problems are solved by children's games, tri colored hair is normal, a person from Japan can have a Brooklyn accent and the police don't exist, a surprisingly popular card game tournament in America was being held.

The tournament was taking place in a large stadium filled with people, and there were not even cool holographs or anything.

Seriously. Thousands of people were watching two guys put cards down on a table, which they probably could not even see, since they were so high up.

In this stadium, on a chair away from the rest of the crowd, since he did not like to be near people without money, sat alone a young rich boy who was president of his own company. He should have been with his little brother, but he had just been kidnapped for the eleventybizilionth time that week, and could not make it. His older brother decided that his little brother had been kidnapped so often that he could wait until after the captivating children's card game to make his dramatic rescue.

The two men dueling were Maximilian Pegasus, the flamboyant creator of duel monsters himself and Bandit Keith, The American champion who liked to remind everyone he was American. If we listen closely, we can hear him speaking.

"You can't beat me because I'm an American!"...See what I mean.

However, the reason that this 'American' frequently announced his nationality was because in fact he was NOT American. The awful truth, his hidden secret was that he was in fact _Canadian. _Bandit Keith originally christened 'Reece Calvier' was born and raised in Toronto Canada.

A few years back...

A young, well-built boy with almond eyes and chestnut colored hair sits in wood cabin at a dinner table in Canada. He picks at his dinner, not really eating it. An older woman with a motherly look passes by and notices this. "Is there something wrong, eh?" she asked concerned. "You're not eating you dinner Reece."

A gruff looking older man notices his wife's inquires and looks up to see she is right.

"She's right, eh, how do you expect to become a hockey playing lumberjack if you don't eat and bulk up, eh?" He demands. No son of his is going to be a wimpy hockey-playing lumberjack; he will get his arse kicked in both professions if he is.

However, young Reece has had enough of this. He can stand it no longer. He must make himself clear.

"Dad I don't want to be a hockey playing lumberjack, I want to professionally play children's card games, with cool holograms!" he proclaims.

"Shut up and eat your maple syrup and bacon." was the only response Reece got out of dear old dad.

"Now, now Reece you must get a _respectable _job if you want to impress a nice French Canadian woman." his mother replied in a nicer fashion.

Young Reece however is rebellious and will not take this lying down, or rather while eating maple syrup drenched bacon.

"I already have a girlfriend, Anne and I are in love!" he reminds them. However, this angers his father, who quickly yells after hearing this,

"No son of mine is going to be with that Anne girl, She moved here from America, you will marry a nice French Canadian girl and Americans are the exact opposite of French."

Finally, Reece has had enough. Forbidden to follow his dreams and to be with the woman he loves he storms out preparing to run away. He will find Anne, and they will sneak across the border, to the land of the free, where you can get rich and famous playing children's card games and can marry anyone you want. Unfortunately, when Reece finds his love, he has found that she has joined Cirque Du Soleil and has fallen for a clown. Reece has lost his love, but he will not lose his dream. That night he sneaks over the border into America, leaving Canada behind and vowing never to return.

In order to perfect his disguise he dyes his hair blonde and puts in blue contact lenses, so he looks like a true American (Even though those are all German characteristics.) To show he has true patriotism, like every good American, and to hide his brown roots, he ties an American flag to his head and wears it like a bandanna. He even dyes all of his clothes red, white and blue to put the point across that he really IS an American.

A week later, while Reece is doing his grocery shopping in in America, the kindly old lady at the counter notices that he is a new face and asks, "Well I haven't seen you around here before, what is your name?"

"My name is Re- I mean...er...Keith! My name is Keith Howard...I'm an American!" 'Keith' answers tactfully.

"That's nice dear, the seven pounds of bacon and fifteen bottles of maple syrup come to $50.00 please.

"Oh, I left my wallet at home...In America!" He says and runs off with his goods. This frequent occurrence is how he got the name 'Bandit Keith'.

Back to the duel.

It appears Bandit Keith is winning. "You can't beat me because I'm an American! "he yells.

Suddenly Pegasus scribbles something on a piece of paper and calls a young boy down from the stadium. Bandit Keith is outraged that Pegasus will not sit and finish the duel like a real American. "What do you think you're doing? Asking for help is illegal...In America!" He yells full of American fury.

"I don't need help, a child could beat you and I'm going to prove it" Pegasus responded, giving the child a piece of paper and putting him in his seat.

"Are you my mommy?" The child asks the effeminate billionaire.

The kid followed the instructions and in just one turn had defeated the infamous Bandit Keith.

It was amazing, spectacular, and unheard of. Who would have thought a child could win a children's card game?

"How can this be happening...In America!" Bandit Keith wondered, completely flabbergasted.

"Just what was that story supposed to prove?" Yuugi asked as Kaiba finished his tale.

It proves that I'm obscenely rich, smell you geeks later I have a hyper active brother to rescue." Kaiba answered and briskly walked away.

A/N-So long guys I will see you in a few weeks. When I come back, we will be on episode 17 of the Japanese anime. The one where Jounochi is kidnapped. Although I plan to give Ryou a nightmare and a flashback so I am not sure how far into that we will go. By the way, guys, do you realize how few stereotypes about Canadians there are? This chapter was impossible to write. BYE!


	8. Midnight struggles

A/N-She's back nananananana, will update this more frequently nananananana. Hi guys! I'm baaaaack! Watching the Memory arc _was _a learning experience and I thought I should share somethings I learned. I learned that: A church cannot prevent the lord of darkness from possessing your body, Yuugi's grandpa is Indiana Jones, If you smash open someones bedroom window with a rock _while they're sleeping in it_ they_ will _notice (Shocker), Bakura has telekinesis, Yami can make kiddie pajamas look sexy and Bakura can rock a trench coat, they spoke Japanese in ancient Egypt, Bakura is too sexy for his shirt, Yami does not catch on very quickly, Bakura was an awesome, powerful, sexy _GOD _back in Egypt, your _daddy _can be your _mummy, _Bakura was so very very sexy, Ishizu is in love with a duel monsters card, Bakura was so _HOT_, why they call it _vase_shipping, so smexy was Bakura, Yami's real name is bird, little squiggle, big squiggle, bird, bird, Bakura was amazing on so many levels, I'm a blueshipper, Bakura can get his leg stuck in a bear trap and still manage to jump on a giant swinging ax and ride away on a horse, how can he get any awesomer?, fanboys are way creepier then fangirls(I swear every time Mana or Kisara appeared I thought I would throw up), Bakura is so awesome that time itself reverses to prevent his death, Akunadin thinks Yami looks good as the naked king (Anyone who has sat through the awful HK subs knows what I mean), Bakura feels the need to put a piece of his soul in everything he touches(literally, I can hear it now "No! bad yami, don't put your soul in that!" he-he), Ryou is the epitome of cuteness, but Bakura is so very sexy, Ryou sure can eat and finally I learned who the sexiest character in anime history is. (Guess who.)

As you can see my crush on the Bakuas grew during the course of the anime...I was tempted to delete this story, only a couple of episodes in and I was like " I messed up big time" I knew I took some liberties, but I made some bad assumptions and it it made me feel like I failed, if I hadn't been distracted by shirtless Bakura I would have deleted it then and there, after I was finished I went to delete it and I swear it was like I had gained a yami of my own. (No I'm not going to turn into one of those authors who have conversations with their imaginary yamis) I could not press the metaphorical big red button, my hand wouldn't move. Then a voice in my head said "**No, you're not deleting this, you **_**can't**__" _and I knew for the same reason that I could not accept help on this, I could not throw it out. I'm too prideful, this is my first published work and I can't throw it away, it's my baby. I couldn't delete it, but I had lost motivation, so this was sort of just sitting there. This would have continued to sit if two things had not happened. _Shantith _asked me to continue and made me question my reasons for writing this _and _I got my inspiration. A girl commented on a comment I made on a Yu-Gi-Oh video. When I looked back to see what I wrote to get such a response I noticed two things, one: it was the episode this chapter will be based off of (17 if you're wondering) and two: another girls comment**. '**What is Ryou doing? Who sleeps like that!?**'**So of course I had to watch the video and see what she meant. At first glance it looks like Ryou is sleeping against a tree, look closer and it looks like he's sleeping, sitting Indian style, pause the screen and stare at it awhile and you'll see the truth: Ryou is kneeling with his arms across his chest. Seeing that left me with the same question as the other girl."What the hell was Ryou doing?" Then I did what all writers do when their confused about something. I wrote about it until it made sense. This is the product.

Disclaimer-I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, if I did, the show would be a drawn out version of the memory arc.

A/N-Oh and Mysia Ri told me, to tell you, to read "Hikari no Yami no Game" and I will. It's a great piece of work. Now after this dreadfully long authors note I finally begin the story.

Kaiba had finished his narration of the duel between Bandit Keith and Pegasus and declared he was off to defeat Pegasus and 'get back what was taken from him', when Yami appeared. One minute Yuugi was standing beside me, trying to sort through Kaiba's motives, to come up with an explanation other then "he's a jerk" for Kaiba's treatment to his friend and the next the sweet voice of Yuugi thinking out loud his way of explaining Kaiba's actions that fit into his mindset that all people were good people, turned into the arrogant voice of Yami.

" _**I **_will be the one to defeat Pegasus." he said.

" Right back at you." Kaiba said, and finally made his dramatic walk off into the woods uninterrupted.

A few minutes passed and we were still standing in the same spot, looking at where Kaiba had left. How were we supposed to go to sleep after all that? With the way the night has been going so far, the moment we rest our heads, Godzilla will come walking out of the water and start destroying the island. Knowing Yuugi's group they would probably think it their duty to defeat him too.

However life goes on no matter what happens to you and therfore Jounochi finally worked up the nerve to say what everyone else wanted to.

" Come on guys, lets go back to camp and get some sleep, were going to need the rest to kick the crap out of the remaing duelist and get the rest of the starchips, we can't let Kaiba beat us to the castle."

He stalked off and we all followed.

Despite the friendship speech given by Anzu earlier we were still not allowed to sleep in the tent and were forced into the clearing. None of us had expected to be going camping so we had no pajamas. We also had no sleeping bags, blankets, pillows or food. (I was still starving.) Jounochi, Honda and Yuugi were all using their jackets as was using his backpack as a pillow. I wish I had gotten the memo, I had a black trench coat at home I used in winter weather that would be perfect right about now. While the others layed down to sleep, I walked around looking for _something _that might keep me warm or serve as a comfy pillow. It would be my first time sleeping alone and I didn't want to remember it as a horrible experience where I almost froze to death, got my hair stained with dirt ( Dirt always showed up on my hair more noticeably because of it's whiteness ) and cracked my skull trying to sleep on a rock.

By the time I returned everyone was already asleep. Yuugi slept perfectly straight in the middle of the clearing, puzzle sitting peacefully on his chest. It looked like an odd position to sleep and I wondered why he didn't just take the puzzle off. It hit me that he was probably afraid, even if only on a subconscious level, that I might try to take it. I didn't let it bother me, I didn't mind trying to gain their trust back, I was good for it. Honda was laying next to him, sprawled out across the ground. I expected Jounochi to be on the other side of Yuugi, Honda and Jounochi tended to act like his body guards, but I didn't see him. I scanned the clearing quickly and found him.

Away from the rest of the group and curled up in a nook created by tree roots, Jounochi layed sleeping. I went over to the spot to check on him. It was such a vulnerable looking position that I had a hard time understanding why Jounochi would sleep like that.

As I drew closer I could see that his sleep was a fitful one. He kept moving his legs as if he was running from something rapidly, he held his chest as if he was bracing himself for something and his face was etched with worry. I knelt beside him, contemplating waking him up from the obvious nightmare.

"Damn you." I jumped back. Had he woken up angry at me for spying? I gave a quick glance his way and saw that his eyes were still closed and he had the same expression on his face. I let out a sigh of relief. 'Huh Jounochi sleep talks.' I thought.

I crept closer, interested now. Maybe he would say something that would give me a better insight as to what the problem was and I could help. I knelt next to him again and listened intently.

"Not a losing dog...dragon fetish freak...won't lose...can't lose...loosing...nothing without Yuugi...can't help Shizuka...can't help myself...loser...losing...losing dog...Kaiba...damn you Kaiba...Kaiba...just a loosing dog."

Anger flooded through me and I walked to the other side of the tree, not wanting to abandon my friend in a time of mental crisis, but not wanting to listen anymore. I layed down and looked up at the stars, concentrating on the beautiful lights rather then the fire coursing through my veins. Random trivia I had acquired from knowing an archaeologist told me by the moons position it was midnight. Watching the small lights break through the darkness looking so pure always had a calming effect on me. I hoped the light could shine through my anger and help me sleep.

I felt myself falling asleep. It sounds weird, since most people don't remember falling asleep, but I always could. Perhaps it was because I understood darkness better. I knew the feeling of darkness wrapping itself around your mind and taking control, so I could recognize it better in sleep. As I felt the familiar mental pressure that leads to unconsciousness, when all the sounds of the world fall mute and you lose awareness of everything, an old and embedded habit passed my lips.

"Are you still there?" I felt a pang in my heart even before the familiar question was completely finished. Sadness mixed with the anger in my heart, making it feel as heavy as a rock. Of course he wasn't there, I knew that. Way to go Ryou, you gave away the last constant in your life.

**"The thief isn't here, but I am."**

What was that!? I looked around the clearing quickly, but the only people in it were fast asleep.

**"Now why are you trying to dispel such a beautiful feeling? You have a wonderful rage built up inside you, if you would only let it out. "**

I'm imagining things. I have lived to long with a voice in my head and now I'm making one up to fill the void.

**"Oh no little vessel, I've always been here, I just couldn't come out until now."**

Who _was_ that!? Spirit was gone, who the hell else was living in my mind!?

**"I am the Dark Lord, the master of shadows, I am the almighty Zorc and your new lord and master as well, forget the thief."**

'You certainly have his ego." I though to him, giving up on passing it off as not was a dark chuckle and I was suddenly very scared.

**"It's that sort of behaviour that will force me to give you some training."**

Suddenly there was a horrible pain in my chest where the millennium ring was resting. It felt like something was burning me alive from the inside out.

**"That idiotic theif allowed, almost encouraged this insolence, but I will not, you will be respectful or be punished." **

The pain was spreading from my chest and engulfing my entire body in black fire.

"**You thought you had it bad with him, that no one could possibly be worse."**

I fell to my knees, grasping the ring, praying for the pain to stop.

**"What you didn't realize was that he was **_**protecting **_**you from me, that he stood as a barrier between us."**

A thought momentarily distracted me from my pain. 'Spirit was putting up with this...for me?' He had always protected me, but he always took something in return. Did he really do this for me?

**"Yes he did ungrateful brat, and now that he is no longer here, combined with the anger, pain and sadness in your heart and the dark night adding to my power, I have been released from the binds within your heart and **_**you are mine.**_

No! This was supposed to be the beginning of my life in control, not an opportunity for something even worse to control my life!

**Foolish child, you thought you could be something more, but you cannot, because you are not. You were **_**created**_** for the sole purpose of housing spirits, it's all you can ever be. However, you will be rewarded for your pains. In this world nothing can be taken without something given in return, so to thank you and those emotions of resentment and sadness, the first thing I'll do with your body is **_**take care of**_** that young man whom you dislike so much."**

'Kaiba! I don't even know where he is, you can't hurt him.' I thought back feeling a sense of relief.

**"How can I not find him while I'm in possession of the ring, it leads its owner to whatever they desire, the thief was the dominant soul and he wanted nothing more then to find the items, so that's what it lead him to, if I desire the Kaiba boy it will show me the way. You could probally do it as well if you weren't so pathetically weak."**

Sure enough the ring started to brightly glow in my hands, the spikes pointing in the direction I had seen Kaiba leave.

Kaiba...no...I did not want to hurt him...I did not want to be ruled by vengeful desires...I did not want to be nothing more then a host...I want to be Ryou...I'm Ryou Bakura...I'm not sure who he is yet...but he's more then a vessel for others to use.'

As I thought this my heart continued to sink lower and lower being engulfed by the sadness, it told me to crawl up in a corner, to stop trying to make a point of living, when it hurt so badly. Still on my knees I looked up to the hovering moon, big, yellow and almost full it brightly broke free from the darkness, I tried to let it inspire me. I tried, but the voice was trying harder to envelop me. How could I hope to just be Ryou when no one else thought of me that way? To father and mother, I had always been 'Son', to Amane I had been 'Big Brother' and all my friends called me 'Bakura'. Did no one feel close enough to me to call me by my name!?

NO. It was my anger and sadness that brought this demon out in the first place, if I wanted to win I could not give in to them. I had to...think happy thoughts? That sounds so lame...CONCENTRATE RYOU! Think of a happy time, when you were more then a vessel, when you were Ryou.

I looked back up at the moon and felt two tears running down running down the sides of my cheek. 'When was I just Ryou?' The moon, the tears, this seemed familiar...When was I Ryou?...The moon, the tears,_ goodnight Ryou..._I remember...

_I remember that day, when I looked up at the moon through the window and felt the tears streak across my face. I remember feeling the warm darkness spread across my mind as a familiar arrogant voice spoke in my head._

_"What wrong little master?" There was no kindness or sympathy in his voice, there never was and I was not in the mood to put up with his taunting._

_"Go away." I mumbled._

_"The mini majesty is temperamental today, what's bothering you?" he continued to pry, it figured the only person around to care about my feelings, didn't._

_""Not today Spirit." I said trying to use some authority._

_"What happened today, did someone bother you at school, does someone need to be punished for making my host cry?" he said, with a sincere emotion now that violence might be involved._

_"It's Sunday, I didn't go to school, besides it's not what happened today, because NOTHING happened today, it's the date that's bothering me, you cannot harm a date, so go away."I said letting my irritation show._

_"Whats so special about the date?" he asked curiously._

_".....It's my birthday." I responded finally. I was not in an argumentative mood._

_"And a birthday is..." he inquired. That surprised me._

_"You don't know what a birthday is?" I asked, surprise completely muffling the former irritation._

_"I wouldn't have asked if I did, many new customs have developed since I was sealed, this is not one I'm familiar with, explain it to me." he commanded._

_" A birthday is the anniversary of the day you're born, it's traditional for the person to be surrounded by loved ones who give him a cake, presents and let him do whatever he wants." I explained to the best of my abilities. "However, today is mine and I'm spending it alone, and forgotten." I added._

_"That father of yours sent you no gifts for the celebration?" He asked, prying again._

_"Of course he did, they're over there." I gestured over to a box filled with ancient scroll paintings from Japan's feudal era, iron crosses that were given out during Europe's black plague for protection, a portable shrine used in ancient Greece and shimmering jewels and tablet pieces from Egypt._

_" My father thinks giving me priceless gifts and gold trinkets, makes him a good dad, but these are worthless to me, they have no heart, no feeling, no thought put into them, I would have rather had a simple card he picked out himself, something with thought to prove he cared." I said as he inspected the gifts._

_"Ah, but think, if it wasn't for your fathers love of sending you gold trinkets, we wouldn't have met, and you did think the ring beautiful and you did put it on, see if there is anyone in the other presents." was his response._

_"I should have known better then to think you could understand, heartless jerk."I said angrily. _

_"Whats to understand? You're being a baby, and you won't be happy until someone gets you a cake, a present with _feeling _and you are told you can do whatever you want, even though you live by yourself and do that already."_

_"I'm not being a baby! That's what everyone expects on their birthday!" I yelled angrily, he just didn't understand._

_"Well, anyway I've got better things to do then sit around and sulk about something you should have expected anyway, so move over." he said. The darkness that was before a warm presence in the back of my mind, swept across me, engulfing every inch of me forcefully._

_'Your taking over _today_, but it's my birthday!" I hollered, before I lost control of my mouth and mind too._

_"Too bad." I heard him say, then there was black._

_Later I would awake to a sweet smell. I was back in my house and in front of me there was a cake. It was angel's food: my favourite. Beside the cake was a note. _

_Dear Ryou,_

_I knew you would be too mad at my little prank to let me talk to you so I left this. You have only been out about two hours, that time was spent making the cake and finding you a gift. It's a bit late in the day to say you can do whatever you want, so tomorrow, do as you please and I will stay as a silent presence in the back of your mind, as you like me. However you must open the mind-link if you want your present._

_-"Spirit"_

_After I finished reading the note I looked around. The kitchen was a disaster area, but the cake was heavenly. It was so typical that he would leave me with the mess, but the note was sweet enough that I forgave him._

_"Thank you for the cake." I said, trying to start off as grateful. "If I ask for my present, will you accuse me of being greedy and manipulative?"_

_"Yes." he answered back. "But only because you are." he added._

_"I can live with that, what is it?"_

_"I bought you nothing, because I knew that it would not make you happy so, goodnight Ryou." He said and retreated away._

_For a moment I was stunned. He never called me Ryou. If it wasn't an insulting nickname it was, 'My Host'. In fact no one called me Ryou. My name was called so seldom, that if I did not have to write it for school, I feared I might forget. Even the letter said Dear '_Ryou'_. It was a great gift, to be given assurance that you were more then a function, like 'son' or 'host'. _

_"Goodnight Bakura." I managed to say before his presence disappeared completely and I though I felt him smile as he left._

We would never use each others names again, but for that one day I was Ryou and I had to hold on to thought now.

"Goodnight Ryou!" I yelled to the demon. Not the most masuline or inspiring of battle cries, but it was mine. It was what would fend off the darkness. The proof that I was more then a host.

**What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" **He growled angrily, but I wasn't paying attention to him.

"Goodnight Ryou." I said again, embracing all the feeling that the memory brought.

**"Yes goodnight, because I'm going to put you into a hellish night that you will never awaken from."**

"Goodnight Ryou, Goodnight Ryou, Goodnight Ryou, GOODNIGHT RYOU!" I said, using the words to create a barrier of light to separate us. I felt the dark presence retreating and knew it was working. If I could keep this up until sun-up, I would be safe.

For the rest of the night I did not move. On my knees, I forced the ring to my chest, not letting it reveal anything and repeated my mantra. When the sun rose I let out a sigh of relief. The night that had given him the power boost was gone and I could relax. I was about to let myself drop and go to sleep when...

"IT'S MORNING, EVERYONE WAKE UP!!"

Was it too late to tell Zorc to kill Jounochi?

A/N-Please review so I know how I'm doing with this.


	9. I'm not evil

AN-Hi guys! Have I told you how much I love you lately? But before I get into that I have some apologies to make. First too Itkk022, whom I promised to have the chapter up two weeks ago. I'm sorry!! I had the chapter all written out that Saturday, despite midterms, clubs, blood drives, work, and one hell of a camping trip. I had it! Then do you know what happened? Well how many of you have ever pressed ctrl and w at the same time? You haven't? Well go ahead and try. Nothing bad will happen I promise. I dare you. I double dog dare you. I'll give you a cupcake...

To those actually gullible enough to listen: Welcome back! You just experienced what I did after 13 hours of straight writing that I was so into that I forgot to save. That's right screen completely gone and all my work wasted. But it's up now and that's what matters.

I also wanted to apologize to Shantith whom I told the name of this chapter would be 'trust me.' It was until I did the um *editing* mentioned above. The re-write changed my perception of the main theme. Now that those are out of the way...

I want to thank my 10 reviewers! (Not by name, that would take to long) Do you know how much you guys rock!? That's twice the amount I got for my previous amount of highest number reviews! I was so upset about the shape of this story and for you all to welcome me back like that was the greatest thing in the world! Thank you! And you all actually read my AN's! That made me feel special, you guys care about what I have to say not just what Ryou has to say, and since now I know this is actually getting read, I'll try not to make it so long.

I also want to thank the two people who reviewed twice, the two who alerted, the three who favorited (and this was all last chapter!) and the average 70 people who come here and read every update. I appreciate your support too! Which is why I'm having a little challenge

Inside this chapter are hidden references to the video game 'kingdom hearts' and the anime/manga 'Naruto' whoever can find them identify them and tell me what character they reference...well...I need an OC for somewhere around chapter 12, this could be your chance to join in. Have fun guys and happy reading!

Disclaimer-I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did I could afford to buy a computer that doesn't suck.

Tired...

So _Very _tired...

I trudged behind the group silently glaring at Jounochi with all the passion I could muster. Which actually, wasn't all that much.

It was getting hard to concentrate. This didn't feel like normal sleepiness where your eye-lids are heavy and you feel so cold, like you need to search out a blanket and snuggle up with it. No this was different, I felt completely drained. I felt light-headed and dizzy, the world would do a quick spin every once and awhile and it wasn't just my eye-lids that were heavy, it felt like every molecule of my body had a 100 ton weight attached to it. My heart beat felt slower and it was getting hard to breath, I had to keep taking in big gasp of air, because my lungs seemed to not to be able to work hard enough themselves. All because of the stupid mutt Jounochi. I resumed my glaring at him from behind.

A part of me that wasn't as heavily influenced by the lack of sleep and had managed to keep a civil frame of thought reminded me that I should be at least sympathetic with Jounochi. He hadn't exactly had the best night ever last night either, he had been struggling with a nightmare and self doubt. He was probably being so energetic this morning to hide his pain. I should find a way to take him aside and show I understand, I should comfort him, I should break his arm for waking me up so early. The part of me that _was_ heavily influenced by sleep and was pissed about being awake had just crushed the nice part. That should probably worry me ...Nope, too tired.

This was probably the third time since he been gone that I wished Spirit was back. I did not like realizing how dependent on him I had grown. It would just be so nice if he could take over, and I could take a nice nap in my soul room. We had done that before, I wasn't exactly a morning person.

I pushed the thought away and went back to blaming the situation on Jounochi. That was a much more comforting train of thought.

Suddenly the group stopped walking. I pulled myself out of my musings and looked up to see what was happening. Of course it was Jounochi causing problems again. He was standing up front fist balled up and shaking.

"Strong opponents?" he was saying. I wondered what the issue was now.

"Hey Yuugi, you shouldn't say things like that" Honda was saying things with a sly smile. "You're going to get Jounouchi all freaked out."

Apparently they were having some sort of conservation while I was zoned out. I couldn't believe that Yuugi would ever purposely say anything upsetting. I wondered what I had missed. I didn't wonder long before Jounouchi yelled, "Who's getting all freaked out!!?" and jumped on Honda. Tackled really.

"What's with you, jerk!?" Honda yelled trying to fight Jounochi off.

'Come on Honda, punch him' I thought viciously. Punch the jerk square in the face...please. Just one, good, hard _smack_ and I'll feel better. Please...

"Hey, stop it you two, don't fight." Anzu said, pullingthe two away and resuming walking.

Damn it!

The violence of my thoughts was surprising me. Those were not normal for me. Spirit was the violent one. I was the nice one, I liked to _stop _violence. So what was wrong with me? I thought of last night with Kaiba, of my revelation that since Spirit was not here I would have to do for me what he used to do. Was I only the nice one _because _he was the mean one? I thought of the saying 'Light cannot exist without Darkness.' Was that the problem? Spirit acted out as my anger, my pride, my hatred, so I didn't have to. With him taking care of those problems I could lay back and criticize him for it, tell him it was wrong and be a better person for never embracing those emotions myself. Without Spirit here I was both. No longer just the nice, light half, but both light and darkness. I suppose it was like that for everybody, but Spirit and I had been together a long time, I had grown used to always being the one to promote good thoughts and actions, in direct opposition of Spirits less benign ones. That's the way it had always been.

Did that mean without him here I would become just like him? Was I doomed to be a revenge obsessed thief? Would I grow a blood fetish and get an evil laugh? I quickly looked at Yuugi to see if I had grown an urge to steal his puzzle overnight. I let out a sigh of relief when I felt nothing. Of course I wouldn't grow to be just like him. I was my own person, I had just been Spirits light half for so long that I didn't know who that was yet and of course I wouldn't be as evil, if I had been full light then he had been full dark. I would be somewhere in the middle: twilight. Whether I was dusk or dawn was what worried me though.

Life would be easier if he was just here. I missed the days when things were simpler. No identity crises, no insomnia driven insanity and no evil demons to be fought off when night comes. What had our stupid fight been over anyway? It felt like ages since the shadow game, though it couldn't have been more then 12 or 14 hours ago. Why hadn't Yami just minded his own business and let me take the hit. I would not have put myself in that position if I had not wanted to be there. I might have had to go to the shadow realm, but Spirit would have gone back for me. I, on the other hand, had no way of knowing how to go back for him.

...Wait! Go back for him!? I just missed him; I didn't really want him back. Or did I? At least with him I knew who I was. Before that thought went any further Jounochi stopped us all again.

"I think we should take a break guys" he said. Were we finally going to stop? About time. Maybe enough time for just a light snooze...

"I've gotta take a leak!" he yelled running off into the woods, once again screaming things that no one really wanted to here. Great, not enough time to get any real rest at all, but I could try, and pray he got lost on his way back.

I went to lie down on the ground, beyond caring about what it looked like or getting dirty and tried to go to sleep. Just as I was closing my eyes...

"Bakura, what are you doing?" Yuugi asked worriedly looking down at me. I had sort of just dropped to the floor without warning. Whoops.

"Just taking a little rest until Jounochi-kun gets back, Yuugi-kun, no need to worry."

"You're tired already?" Honda scoffed. "We've only been walking an hour or so."

"I'm sorry if it bothers you Honda-kun." I said trying to be more civil in my actions then I was with my thoughts. "But I had trouble falling asleep last night and Jounochi-kun woke us up pretty early, if I don't rest I'm going to faint, just wake me up when he gets back, feel free to yell or pinch me, I'm kind of a deep sleeper." I yawned and I let unconsciousness and dreams of Jounochi being eaten by a bear, take me.

Something was shaking me...

"Bakura, wake up." What was that voice? "Come on get up!" It sounded familiar..."Why don't you pinch him, he said it was okay" That was a different voice, but equally familiar. Where was I again?

"I'm not going to pinch him Honda, wake up Bakura!"

"Aw come on Yuugi, he's sleeping like the dead, quietly saying 'wake-up', isn't going to do it."

Honda, Yuugi. OH! My eyes flew open to see large amethyst orbs staring into them.

"AH!" we both yelled and flew back.

"Sorry...Yuugi" I huffed trying to restart my heart.

"It's alright Bakura" Yuugi huffed, equally as startled as I was. "I shouldn't have been so close."

Yuugi extended his hand and helped me up. I stood up and stretched, looking around I noticed something or rather _someone _was missing. Why were they waking me up if Jounochi wasn't even back yet? Come to think of it, it didn't fell like I had been asleep for the five minutes or so it should have taken Jounochi to get back. It felt longer then that...

"Where is Jounochi" I asked Yuugi, still looking around, searching for him.

"Jounochi-kun is really late" Yuugi said, not looking at me, but at the spot Jounochi left through, staring at it intently as if he was willing him back.

"He's right, it's been at least 20 minutes since he left" said Honda, mimicking Yuugi's motion.

"We're afraid he might be lost" Anzu said, now all three of them looking out into the forest, faces etched with worry.

Jounochi was missing? Maybe it was knee-jerk reaction after so many years of Spirit making anyone I thought unkindly about disappear, but I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt threaten to crush me. Yes, too many years of people vanishing when I was upset, made Jounochi going missing after I had wished him gone a disturbing thought. It couldn't have been me, I reminded myself. I can't do anything that me, myself didn't do and I had been sleeping. So why did I still feel like it was my fault?

No one controls me anymore.

**Guilt.**

Spirit is gone.

**Guilt.**

Zorc is locked away somewhere.

**Guilt.**

If either one had done it they would be bragging right now.

**Guilt.**

Spirit are you there!!??

**Guilt**.

I didn't do anything!

**_Guilt._**

Jounochi was perfectly safe I told myself. Any minute he would jump out of the bushes trying to scare us, or come strutting in after winning a duel, showing off his Star Chips to Yuugi. That's how I have to picture him, big, cheesy, cocky grin on his face, bashful laugh as everyone yelled at him for making them worry. However the picture in my mind morphed. Jounochi grew a hundred feet tall and was covered in bloody gashes; he had a black eye, some missing teeth and were those piranhas on his arm!?

"You did this to me!" the giant mutilated Jounochi said, stepping forward and making the earth quake as he walked.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled as I tried to run away, but he grabbed me in his giant fist, that had a bite taken out of his thumb.

"It's all your fault!" The Jouzilla hollered, right in my face.

"I didn't do anything!" I yelled pathetically back. Jounormus suddenly dissolved into a black mist that surrounded me and brought me to the ground. The black mist then materialized into a new shape...me. Not me, the look-a-like form that Spirit took when we talked in our soul rooms, but really me, like looking in a mirror.

"I wish he would get lost on his way back" the other me said, repeating my words from earlier, but I hadn't meant that. I only wanted to sleep a little a little longer. Jounochi was my friend, I wouldn't really wish something bad on him.

"I hope he gets eaten by a bear." The look alike said, again repeating my malicious thoughts. I hadn't meant that either. I just wasn't a morning person! Was that so wrong?

The doppelganger walked over toward me, and smiled. Not the twisted smirk that Spirit wears, but one of my real, friendly smiles.

"I did it" he said. "It's my fault" and then he dissolved into me.

My eyes flew open. A nightmare. A day dream. A day-mare. This is no times for jokes Ryou! Jounochi being missing was a reality. Not that it's my fault. No, I don't believe that one bit.

"Jounochi's probably just dueling someone, we should wait here a little longer just in case" Honda said, snapping me out of my thoughts. No! If I didn't find him soon the guilt of thinking such bad things about him before he disappeared was going to eat me alive, or drive me insane. I was never thinking a single mean-spirited thought again.

"Actually I think we should look for him now, just in case." I interjected. I was finding Jounochi if I had to wander aimlessly into the forest by myself. Although that didn't sound very productive. There had to be something I could use to find Jounochi. The wind blew and the spikes of the ring clanked together making a wind chime like sound. Duh.

**The ring, it leads its owner to whatever they desire, the thief was the dominant soul and he wanted nothing more then to find the items, so that's what it lead him to, you could probably do it as well if you weren't so pathetically weak."**

That's it. If Spirit was gone, and I defeated Zorc, then that made me dominant soul. If I could figure out how to use the ring, then it could lead me to Jounochi. Perfect.

"You know what? Bakura is probably right, let's go look for him." Honda said, changing his mind," Bakura come with me this way" he pointed in a direction toward the right and started running. "Anzu, Yuugi, you go that way." he said, pointing in the opposite direction and they also broke into a run.

I was glad that by now the group was well aware of the fact that I was not an athlete, and therefore Honda did not notice and/or think it unusual that I was so far behind. Of course I wanted to find Jounochi; I just had a plan that would work significantly better then running randomly and yelling Jounochi's name.

I was putting all my focus into trying to get the ring to work for me. Of course since I really needed it to work it wasn't doing anything.

I was running a bit behind Honda, yelling 'Jounochi' every once in awhile, as to not create suspicion and clutching the ring, begging and pleading with it to work. I didn't understand why it was being disobedient for me. By my logic, I should be able to do it. What was wrong?

As we ran I noticed Yuugi and Anzu's voice starting to fade. The path they took must have led them far away from us. Honda I assume, had been waiting for that moment, because as soon as the other groups distance became obvious, he dead halted, turned around and glared at me.

"I don't trust you." he started out simply. "Yuugi trusts you: The guy's so pure if you punch him in the face, you're forgiven before you even say sorry. Anzu trusts you: She wants to wrap everyone in this big circle of friendship, but what can you expect from someone who has been friends with Yuugi since pre-school? Jounochi trusts you: He acts all tough, but he's got a heart of gold, and you have that same innocent expression that reminds him of Yuugi. They all trust you, so one of as has to remember that, that wasn't a dream: That you tried to kill us. I have a deep bond with all of them, that's why you're with me, not alone with Yuugi or Anzu where you could hurt them. I don't trust you, I'm watching you. If it's the only thing that will keep those idiots safe remember that." He finished and gave me a long, hard look.

"I didn't do anything." It was meant to come out strong and defiant, or at least with the same cold viciousness he had used, but it was sad and broken. I don't know if he heard me, he just turned around and continued with his old pace.

I wasn't trusted. It felt like someone had released a machine gun on me. How was I supposed to prove to myself that I was trust worthy, if the people around me didn't even think I was?

I didn't do anything! I never did anything, but the one stuck with the guilt, the blame and the looks was always me! I started running to keep up with Honda and the ring bounced across my chest. That stupid ring! The one thing I could use to make this better. The one thing I could use to ease some of this emotional _weight_ that had been threatening to crush me and it chose now to malfunction.

I stopped in my tracks. Forget Honda. I held the ring up and snarled, "Where. Is. Jounochi." I didn't care about being nice to it any more, I wanted results. However, despite how confident I was in my command, I was a bit shocked when it actually listened. It was only one point. It only glowed slightly. It only levitated slightly. It only lasted a moment. But it was enough.

The ring pointed to a fork in the path we were taking. Honda was continuing to run straight, but the ring pointed to the path heading right.

Now knowing my path I put all my energy into running as fast as I could. Spirit had always been the runner, but there was no reason I couldn't be. My body had the same limits no matter who was controlling it; Spirit just knew how to push himself harder. I lacked the motivation. Proving Honda wrong turned out to be a pretty good motivator.

I raced ahead and passed Honda. As I turned and headed down the correct path I yelled to Honda, "This way!" and since I was the big scary monster that couldn't be left alone, he followed.

This felt great, like the whole world was open to me. I had _power_. I felt my heart beat faster and faster as I ran quicker and quicker. The adrenaline and exhilaration flowed throughout my body. I loved this feeling; nothing could possibly bring me dow-

SMACK!!!

Ow...pain and ow and...Lots of pain. Ow and ow and...Ow. . What hit me?

I looked up to see Yuugi, a good three feet away from me and obviously suffering from the worst of the recoil.

"Oh! I am so sorry Yuugi-kun! You guys sounded far away" I said quickly and ran over to him. This is what happens when you get power hungry Ryou, people get hurt. I'm such an idiot.

I knelt down beside him and did an inventory of damages done. I sighed in relief when I saw he barley gained a bruise in the impact. It just looked bad, seeing him on the ground sprawled out like that. I was also relived that Anzu had been standing there the whole time, so when Honda finally caught up and saw me kneeling next to the bruised Yuugi, it wasn't added to the 'proof that Ryou is evil' list that Honda seemed to be mentally making.

"It's okay Bakura, there was a loop in the path, but why were running so fast? Did you hear from Jounochi!?" He asked hopefully. I had no idea what to say to him. All the feelings from earlier seemed to vanish as his eyes bored into me. I was suddenly plagued with doubts. What if the ring was leading me the wrong way? What if Honda had misjudged the situation and Yuugi didn't trust me either? Would I survive the look in the all trusting Yuugi's eyes as it turned wary and skeptical? I let my glance wander back to Yuugi. The look didn't contain a single hint of distrust. It was still hopeful, still bright. How could I let him down?

"Sort of" I said and turned my head away. It was harder to do this without the adrenaline rush. The pure fury made it so easy to just react to everything around me. Now my head was clear, I was thinking too much. Like how was I supposed to do it? I couldn't make it do anything until it started to randomly work after my fight with Honda. What had I done differently...?

Of course!

To be a dominant soul, some form of dominance was needed. This was not a job for a weak, light half. There would be no begging or pretty pleasing in this. I would have to embrace my darker side for this, and I did mean _my _darker half, not just asking Spirit to do it. However, he was the only darker half I knew. I suppose acting like Spirit was a good as start as any.

Yuugi was still looking at me confused. I took a deep breath and prepared to get the worst part of it over with.

"Yuugi, I think I can find Jounochi, but you can't freak out, and you have to remember that I am me." I said finally.

He looked at me, still confused, but still no distrust and said, "Who else would you be?" and smiled warmly. My heart almost broke from it.

"Just...You know." I said, kind of vaguely.

I changed my posture. I abandoned my rigid straight school boy way of standing and tried to remember how Spirit had stood. Sort of sideways, so that his chest was puffed out, like an arrogant peacock, but his back was also slouched, like he couldn't give a damn about anyone or anything. Just the position seemed to be power filling. Taking on Spirit's posture seemed to give me his confidence. I went further. I picked up the ring and not exactly glared at it, but focused my eyes on to it. Narrowing them until I only saw every small detail on it, and nothing else. Finally I let out that throaty noise of contempt, that 'Hmp' Spirit used when observing something.

I felt great. Like faking a smile long enough could delude you into thinking you're happy, acting like Spirit made me feel like I owned the world. The smirk came to my face naturally; I didn't even have to think about it. Almost like my body naturally knew what was coming next. I thought of ruffuling my hair like his just for effect. Then I saw the way Yuugi was looking at me. He had taken a few steps back and was looking at me with fear, still not distrust, but fear.

"I'm still me." I said with my normal light voice and smiled for real at him, the same smile I had given during the shadow game to show that despite everything, I was still on his side.

I would leave my smile there. I didn't have to completely turn myself into Spirit to use his powers. As I said earlier, being power hungry only got people hurt and I didn't want to be controlled by the darkness I was trying to control.

"Find Katsuya Jounochi." I ordered the ring, in a low and commanding voice. I could copy his voice as easily as he could mine.

This time a lone point did not slightly rise or faintly glow, but the whole ring burst into light and all five spikes gravitated forward with so much force that if I had not broken into a run to keep up with it, it would have at the very least knocked me to the ground, take my head clean off at the most.

"This way!" I yelled to the group, who was still standing awe-struck by the display.

Despite the speed at which the ring was forcing me to go, Honda and Anzu quickly passed me as soon as they got the general gist of the direction I was heading. They looked back at me every once and awhile to make sure I hadn't made a sharp turn or anything. Curiously enough Yuugi was running behind me, though I knew that despite his short legs, when it came to a friends safety, he was quicker then any of us. I noticed the pure intent at which he was looking at me run and decided that general gist of direction was not good enough for Yuugi when it came to Jounochi. He had to know exactly where to find Jounochi and that meant following me.

Up ahead I noticed that Honda and Anzu had stopped and were bending over something. As I slowed my pace, I tried to suppress my ring's powers. Easier said then done, but I got it to lay calmly on my chest. When I caught up to them they were holding a wallet with a picture of a girl just younger then us, with long auburn hair, hazel eyes and a bright smile.

"That's Jounochi's sister." Honda said as he continued to examine the wallet. "He loves her a lot, something must have happened to him for him to lose this." he continued.

We looked ahead of us to see a large cave just ahead. The ring started fussing again and tried to lead me inside. Alright I get it, I thought as I surpessed it again.

"In here guys." I said and headed for the entrance. As I walked I heard Honda stop Yuugi, the footsteps of the biggest and the smallest on the island were easy to identify.

"Wait Yuugi, are you sure it's okay to trust Bakura to lead us through a dark cave, especially when he's been meddling with that weird necklace?" he whispered to him, though I could still hear every word like a piece of glass going through my chest. I froze in my tracks waiting for the answer, for assurance in my status here, no matter what it was, no matter how hope shattering awful...

"Of course I trust him Honda, what's wrong with you?" Yuugi replied.

I smiled and continued forward into the darkness.

AN-Yay I'm done! I'm so exited to start the next chapter! What happens next is one of the four reasons I started writing this. It made me stop, laugh and say "I bet Ryou wishes he still had Bakura right about now." I can't wait! Speaking of the next chapter... I got 10 reviews so I'm officially spoiled. I have a four day weekend starting tomorrow and besides two Halloween parties, not much to do over it. So if I get lots of reviews again, on top of my enthusiasm for the chapter I might just update over the break. Not that I'm holding the chapter for ransom, I'll post it when I'm done with it even if no one reviews, but reviews help push me to that finish line.

REVIEW please! and have a happy Halloween guys.


	10. Only Ryou

/N-*Hides meekly* I am so sorry!!!! I know I said this would be updated like 3 weeks ago. I thought I could, I really did! Things happened...Just give me two seconds to explain before you kill me.

First of all, it's longer then most. 9 pages! Second, I had intense writers block. I know I said I was exited about this chapter, and I was. Until I realized some things look better in animation then written. A lot of this chapter I had to really trudge through before getting inspiration. And when I did finally get inspired…lets just say if I know my readers you probably won't like something in this chapter. *CoughAnzucough*

Look I could fill up another 9 pages explaining why this is so late, including an awesome story about how I got my butt saved by famous author Laurie Halse Anderson. (Really happened, awesome story, e-mail me if you want details.) But I figure after all this time you want to read the story not listen to excuses. So here we go.

Disclaimer- I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did I would have a mountain of Ryou plushies.

"What the hell?" Honda said, as suspicious glances made their way toward me. Honestly, I wouldn't trust myself either in this position, it looked pretty bad.

The cave wasn't incredibly dark or ominous, the sunshine streaming in from the entrance brightened it, lighting the whole thing despite how expansive it seemed to be and actually made it feel warm. However there was a musty look to it. There were multiple stalagmites on the roof of the cave and occasionally a drop of water would fall from it. It would normally not be a cave to be afraid of, if it weren't for one tiny detail about its contents.

I felt great as we entered the cave, having Yuugi at my side to deflect any of Honda's comments gave me a little ray of hope. Then our eyes adjusted to the dimmed light and we saw what was in the cave. It was all downhill from there.

Inside the cave that the ring had led us too, which I was never listening to again, were two coffins standing up right in front of us.

I couldn't imagine there being anything else we could have possibly found to make me look worse, I had just led them into a cave filled with _coffins. _I could only imagine what they thought of me for this.

"Be careful of them!" Yuugi said with apprehension. Leave it to Yuugi to be more scared of the coffins themselves rather then what someone might be planning to do with them. "T-t-there looks like something is in them." he said with even more fear.

Something in them? The coffins were a cedar brown color with silver linings and silver, cross like shape gong across the whole face of the coffin, with the intersection near the top. There seemed to be something odd about them, but nothing gave away that there might be something in them, it was probably only Yuugi's imagination getting away with him.

"Those are coffins aren't they?" Anzu said with more confusion then the distress Yuugi had shown.

"They don't look real." I said walking up to them hoping to make the situation better. It certainly couldn't get any worse and it wouldn't be long before Honda said something to make this look like it was all part of my evil mastermind plan. Under a closer examination, I noticed that they indeed weren't real.

You could tell they were fake coffins as soon as you got over the initial shock and really looked at them. It was as easy as telling the difference between a home video and a television show, your brain just knows. Plus I had seen two coffins lay side by side before, though I kept that memory as tucked away as possible, I knew this wasn't the way they looked. The wood was wrong, if that made any sense. It wasn't polished enough, it wasn't shiny enough. Being in a cave could have dislutered them, but I put my hand on the coffin and felt that the texture was wrong too.

Someone had made them to look scary, they were newly built but they were dulled. The metal was sharp and made an uninviting aura. No one with any intention of making this for a funeral would build it like that. They should be fresh and friendly looking. As if someone had just made it and it was for you to put all your special treasures in. A real coffin would never inspire fear, only sadness when you realized the power it held, only anger when you thought about how much time and money was put into making this beautiful box, only to burn or bury it.

This intimidating coffin looked more suited for dramatic purposes, like what Dracula would come out of in a movie.

"Stop it you two." Yuugi said with worry. Two? I looked over to see that Anzu was examining the coffin on my left. "This is sickening." Honda said with disgust as we played with the coffins. Obviously neither of the other boys had seen a coffin before. Once you realized that they were fake, all the power that went with their name disappeared, they were almost laughable.

"Don't worry guys, their just stage props." Anzu said with happy relief. I was surprised it was the girl who had considered herself too lady-like to sleep on the ground or in a tent with boys last night that was up here with me. You would think she would find it dirty or disgusting. I remembered that when she saw the coffins, she had not shrieked, but looked at them curiously. No, not curious, _confused_. Had she noticed there was something odd about the coffins too? That would mean she had probably seen death as well. I looked at her with new eyes as she knocked on the casket with bright inquisitive eyes and a smile, she was always surprising me.

The moment was ruined as she accidentally pushed too hard into the coffin. Suddenly I noticed the back of the coffins had long metal chains attached to it. They moved and made a clockwork sound, as if they were part of a pulley, and then the coffins opened.

I did not frighten easily when it came to the enigmatic, I had just been analyzing a coffin in an unknown cave, but when a skeleton falls and latches on to you, arms wrapped around your neck, bare rib bones digging into your chest, I dare you not to scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Anzu's and my screams echoed throughout the cave.

Fear creates the irresistible urge to run. So that was what we did, we screamed, we panicked, we ran from the enemy helplessly. Our situation was much like a Chinese torture device, you try and try to pull away from it and you only end up more trapped and constricted by it. The smart thing to do would be too stop calm down and think about it rationally, then put your fingers together and release yourself, but for those that are claustrophobic it's not that easy. You cannot push the panic out of your mind, an almost animalistic instinct takes over your mind and controls you, you can't think only act until something happens, and you just pull harder and harder, only thinking of being free, not the intelligent route into getting there.

That's what happened to us. If we had just stopped a minute we would realize that a fake coffin, most likely had fake skeletons, we would see that all we had to do was stop and remove the skeletons to be free. But we were panicked, so we continued to run around in circles with skeletons on our back until we were saved by the very people we were trying to look brave in front of.

I closed my eyes at the sound of a crash and flashes of dirty grey everywhere. When I opened my eyes Anzu and I were sitting in a pile of bones.

"God damn that Pegasus, I wish he would stop screwing around!" Honda said loudly, looking down at us.

Yuugi was looking down at us too, but his eyes were far away. "Jounochi." he said worriedly with a sigh. He was probably imagining if this is the kind of trouble we were getting into, what could Jounochi have gotten himself into? I was nervous for him too.

It was a well known fact amongst his friends that Jounochi hated anything occult, mysterious, spiritual or frankly anything that he couldn't just punch to put an end too. Not that any of us though of him as a meat-head, just someone who prefers or rather, is used to solving things by his own physical efforts, likes his feet on the ground and is a general down to earth person.

A place like this, designed by Pegasus to be the ultimate walk though haunted house, was probably Jounochi's worst nightmare. It did not help that I still felt that my ill thoughts had brought it about. You would think I would know the meaning of the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' by now.

I noticed an extended hand offering to help me up; I was surprised to see it belonged to Honda. I thought I was 'the one who must no be trusted' 10 minutes ago, why was he helping me now? He grinned sheepishly as he pulled me up.

"No one, who has that girly of a scream, is dangerous." he said with a laugh. If I hadn't been hearing comments like that all my life I would probably be livid. "I guess Jounochi was right, you are just a second Yuugi that needs care and protection. I'll look after you" he said smugly and pulled me close to him. I might have said something very rude in response if Yuugi had not interrupted me.

"It looks like there's only one path through the cave as far as I can see Bakura, are you sure this is the right way?" he said. Not even looking at me, but at the path. I was surprised by his tone. He wasn't usually so quick, not even with me.

"Yeah Yuugi-kun I'm sure, it's all I can do now to stop the thing from dragging me further in." I said trying to laugh it off, but it came out as more of a nervous chuckle. He only nodded and took the lead into the cave.

I was a little hurt by the way Yuugi was treating me. Had the messing around with the skeletons annoyed him? I had not meant to upset him...

As I started to follow I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up to see it was Honda again. "Don't let the way Yuugi is acting bother you, he's just worried about Jounochi, those two go way back." he said lowly, so the mentioned boy in front of us couldn't here. I was still a bit surprised by the way Honda was acting. It was if he was trying to take me under his wing to make up for the way he was acting before.

"Of course Yuugi has been friends with Anzu longer" he continued, "But she has always been hard to tie down. She was always a dreamer, when we were little kids she would just sit under a tree and get lost in her thoughts, never one for reality or anything outside her little world. Maybe that's why she and Yuugi got along so well. Him and his games, her and her dreams, neither really wanting anything to do with the real world. Then of course there was the fact when she did manage to notice the world around her, she was vicious to whoever was messing with Yuugi. That calm thoughtful expression could turn blood thirsty in seconds if someone was mean to him. Unlike her however, Yuugi always wanted to be with other people, always trying to get someone to play a game with him, but Anzu was disconnected, you talked to her and she wasn't really there, she was far-far away from the mundane life she was living." he said and then suddenly laughed.

"Then she discovered ballet." he said with a smile. "If Yuugi thought he was going to lose her to her own thoughts then, he knew he was going to lose her to her new dream now. Those ballet classes were all she talked about, she would come to school wearing a tutu and practice her moves during recess. As she got older she discovered different types of dance and loved them all. Every year she participates in the talent show and does a different one." Honda was still laughing at the memory, but then his face got serious and a bit sad.

"Yuugi's always been a great listener." he said seemingly off topic. "One of the reasons Anzu loved being with him: she could tell him all her dreams and know he would never laugh. She didn't even think about how much it hurt him to listen to those dreams. Jounochi is probably simpler for Yuugi to deal with."

"What do you mean?" I said, asking the first question since he had started his narrative.

"Don't tell me you're the only person blind enough to not see it." he said fully grinning again. "Just look at them."

I looked ahead of us to see Anzu and Yuugi walking side by side. Yuugi was walking with his head down while Anzu had her hand laying firm on Yuugi's shoulder while she chatted cheerfully. Yuugi raised his eyes to her at something she said, and then spoke a minute with a small smile playing on his lips before lowering his head again. Anzu smiled even brighter at her progress and continued to talk, hoping to get another reaction.

"Oh, you mean _that_." I said turning away from them with a smile as Yuugi raised his head again to talk to her more with a larger grin on his face.

"Yes, that. Yuugi loves her. Anzu loves him too, but not as much I think, her dreams are too big and fill up too much of her heart. Whatever room left for her feelings for Yuugi can't be much. But she does love him, that's why she trusts him with her heart, though she doesn't know it's killing him to hold it." he said.

I gave him a confused look. I knew they were in love, everyone in Domino knew that. Why that was hurting Yuugi I didn't understand.

Honda sighed at me. "She wants to go to America to continue studying dance, she wants to make it big as a Broadway star." he explained "It's her constant drive in everything she does, when she's not practicing, she's working her butt off to afford the trip, she studies so she can get a scholarship, she eats only certain things to keep that dancer figure and everyday it's, 'Yuugi, one day I'm going to go to America, I'm going to dance for millions and be a star.' and it kills him. Kills him because he knows it will be true. Kills him because he knows High schools going to end and she's going to leave to be famous and he's going to take over his grandfathers game shop. That once she makes it out of that small town she will never come back. He's going to lose her and she reminds him of that everyday with a huge smile on her face. So it's no surprise Yuugi and Jounochi are closer, he actually has his feet on the ground." Honda finished.

"I thought they only became friends this year, I wouldn't call that way back" I said remembering the story about Jounochi's oddly formed transition from tormenter to protector.

Honda looked at me oddly. "I forgot you were new here." he said "They've only started looking like conventional friends this year. They go farther back then that. Yuugi's considered himself his friend since they met in middle school, Jounochi considered Yuugi more of a project back then, then a friend, but the good will of a friend was still there, though it was Jounochi so of course he screwed it up and didn't get it right for years." he sighed.

"To everyone else it looked like Jounochi was tormenting Yuugi, but Yuugi saw through it, knew he was only trying to make him stronger. Even when Jounochi was in a bad angry place, he wasn't a bully, he didn't pick on those weaker then him for the fun of it, he took on big guys twice his size, three to one. Won too." Honda started.

"So one day Jounochi was running through the halls, in a rush for lunch, he accidentally bulldozed straight into the school's shortest occupant and resident game freak." Honda laughed.

"Now Jounochi wasn't the type of person who, when he bumps into someone, acts like it's all their fault and demands an apology, but when he saw how he had hit Yuugi, really sent him flying into a wall, and then watched him run off, eyes down cast and trying to melt into the floor, something about it really irked him." Honda paused and frowned for a minute.

"I'm not really sure exactly what happened next. After that everything I heard was second hand rumors. The only thing Jounochi would say is 'that kid needs to toughen up'. Jounochi's idea of helping him do that was putting him through hell trying to get a reaction out of him. Though from what I heard he never actually laid a hand on him. There was abuse though, verbal abuse, mental abuse, Jounochi probably took everything of Yuugi's he could get his hands on." Honda chuckled.

"Years and years of that and not once did Yuugi ever try and get any kind of revenge, he wouldn't do anything to get Jounochi in trouble or fight back. The thing with Yuugi is, and what we all see now, he doesn't fight for himself. He fights for others, so it wasn't until Jounochi was in trouble that Yuugi actually fought back, and Jounochi saw that Yuugi could be strong, if he felt like it. Now Jounochi protects Yuugi, to make sure he doesn't have to use that fighting nature he hates so much. That's probably why Yuugi is so intent about finding Jounochi, he's always been there for him, and it's Yuugi's turn. In his mind anyway. They do more for each other then either realize." Honda finished.

I looked at the group and felt a bit sad, they all had these experiences and memories that made this deep bond between them, I felt a bit left out.

"So what about you?" I asked Honda." How did you end up in the Yuugi group?" If I was going to know everyone else's story I should know Honda's too. It might help explain his mood swings.

Honda stared off for a minute, perhaps unsure of how to tell his own story. "Do you know Nosaka, Miho?" he asked suddenly. "Beautiful violet hair, sparkling midnight purple eyes, voice of an angel, works in the library, she's in our class, sits third row to the left, two seats down..."he trailed off.

I nodded to him. I knew Miho. When I went to the library to check out books she would often be hiding behind a book shelf staring at me with those 'sparkly, midnight purple eyes' and whenever I needed to find something there, she was the first to jump up and volunteer, walking in front, face completely red the whole time. For the sake of my future friendship with Honda I decided not to mention those details of our acquaintance.

"Well second year I fell pretty hard for her and fool that I am I told Jounochi about it, looking for help." I stared at him flabbergasted. Not only was Jounochi the biggest loud mouth on campus when it came to secrets, but he was also as romantic as a tooth pick.

Honda noticed my expression. "I know, stupid, but Jounochi is my best friend, and being best friends he waited a whole hour before blabbing to Yuugi about it." Honda said and I chuckled.

"Now back then Yuugi and I weren't on the best of terms, our relationship consisted of me threatening to beat him up if he didn't do as I said, usually just carry my books." I looked up at Honda with surprise; he didn't look like the type of person to be cruel to anyone but me. Honda did not notice my expression this time and continued.

"I was worried sick that he was going to use the info as black mail to get back at me. I threatened to kill him right there in the parking lot if he told a soul about how I felt. Yuugi being Yuugi, not only promised not to tell, but tried to help me get the girl. We went to the game shop after school to see if there was something romantic there that would impress my Ribbon-Chan. We found what would have been the perfect thing if the plan had gone well." Honda said with a look of longing.

"It was a blank puzzle. You could write on it, and your love letter would be filled out as she completed it. I threatened Yuugi into writing the inscription for me; my feelings for Miho were too strong for me to put into words myself. He wrote it that night and put into her desk that morning." Honda said and then an angry look crossed his features.

"If it weren't for that stupid, uptight teacher...She decides that day she wants to a surprise desk inspection, 'pull everything out', she says. Poor Miho didn't know we put the gift in her desk. She started to cry as the teacher flounced it around, making fun. That teacher was a real bitch. Then she asks who put the present in her desk. The biggest surprise of my life was seeing Yuugi immediately stand up and say it was him. He really took a bullet for me." Honda said calming down a bit. Then he got an odd look on his face.

"Strangest thing was nobody got in trouble. Just as the teacher was questioning Yuugi, all her make-up starts to crack and reveals this really weird looking face, she ran screaming out of the class, saying she won't get any of us in trouble if we didn't tell anyone about what her face really looks like. It was a great laugh, and something really happened between Yuugi and me that day, I just sorta assimilated into the group after that." Honda said, finishing up.

"Did you ever tell Miho how you felt? I asked. Those two would suit each other well. Miho always had her nose in the latest romance book, and Honda was the chivalrous, over the top kind of guy that could fill her expectations.

"Yup."

"And..."

"Stone cold rejected me." he said with a sigh. I wasn't sure what to say to that. I didn't have time to think about it long before the next thing happened.

We had been walking deeper and deeper into the cave as Honda was telling his stories, and I had not noticed that the caves light was dimming the further we went in. It appeared that the only light in the cave came from the entrance, and now that we were so far away, we were standing in almost pitch black darkness. It looked like Yuugi and Anzu, still ahead of us, had just noticed too.

"It looks like there's a light ahead!" Yuugi called out to us. "Let's just make a run for it."

I saw no light ahead only more darkness, but everyone else was already running.

Just as I figured it was only darker the farther we ran in, it got to the point where I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Uncoordinated on a normal basis, it was no surprise that after few seconds of running in the dark, I felt myself trip over something and crash landed into what I assume was the cave wall.

"Ow." I said as I rubbed my head. It was black everywhere and I couldn't tell if that was because the cave was still dark or because of the head injury. Every part of my body hurt, but after a few minutes of blinking and seeing that it wasn't getting any lighter, I decided that I was fine and should move on.

I felt heavier as I stood up, but I figured that was just the splitting headache. I was trying to get back on the path when I noticed that I could no longer here anyone else's footsteps.

"Hey!" I yelled out, hoping one of them would her me.

"This way Bakura-kun!" I heard Honda respond.

I started running in the direction of his voice. "Wait up guys!"

I noticed a dim brightness ahead and guessed that was the light Yuugi had been talking about; as I followed it and Honda's voice I made out three figures and assumed it was them.

"Hey!" I yelled again, to get their attention.

When they noticed me they took off running again. I knew we were in a rush to find Jounochi, but couldn't they wait two seconds for me to catch up?

"Come on guys wait up!" I yelled as I chased after them. Did they have to run so fast?

Suddenly Honda turned around and there was a flash of light. I closed my eyes and flinched. When I opened my eyes I was once again laying in a pile of bones. How did this keep happening to me? I mean not even when Spirit was around had I ever-

"Bakura you are a jinx!" Honda yelled at me.

_Do you have any idea what a damn trouble magnet you are?_

"I can't take anymore of this." Anzu said, lying on her stomach, completely exhausted from the run.

"We are so off track because of you." Yuugi said who was also lying down in exhaustion.

"I'm sorry everyone." I said meekly. How was I supposed to know that when I tripped I had landed on another skeleton?

"Alright, mystical gps or not, if we keep following Bakura we are going to end up in a skeleton pit. Yuugi, which way do you think we should go?" Honda asked.

We looked over to see the cave's path spit in two. The wall that divided it was covered with Skeleton head with candles in their mouths. The light we had seen earlier.

Anzu looked at the heads grimly, "I wish Pegasus would give it a rest already." I chuckled at the face she made.

"Anyway let's hurry up and find Jounochi." Yuugi said, snapping us back into focus.

As we stood up to follow his lead, I felt my foot suddenly go down, like I had stepped on something soft. I looked down and saw that I had stepped on some kind of hidden button, like in bad horror movies.

All of sudden there was a large rumbling sound coming from the path we had just came from.

"What is that?" Honda said as the noise got louder.

"I'm sorry it's my fault-" I began

"Be quiet." Yuugi commanded us.

I instantly covered my mouth as to not make anymore noise. I was causing nothing but trouble today.

We continued to look for the source of the noise when it appeared. A giant boulder rolling toward us.

You don't know how fast you can run unit there's a 10 foot boulder rolling 2 feet away from you.

"Why is it coming this way!?" Anzu screamed.

"This isn't the time to worry about that!" Honda yelled back.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! 'I'm sorry!" I yelled. I really was a jinx. These kinds of things only happen to me and now there was no Spirit to protect me.

As if the divine powers wanted to prove my inability to take of myself, I felt myself trip again. No! Not here! Klutziness takes over at any other time but not here! But it was too late; I was already in mid-air and felt myself falling to the ground.

A force rolled over me. It wasn't as heavy or painful as I thought it would be. I chalked it up to God's mercy.

I'm dead. I'm dead I'm dead. I died I'm dead.

_Dead._

Dead feels a bit like a rocky cave floor.

_Dead._

If I'm dead I wonder if I'll see Spirit.

_Dead._

Do I really want to?

_Dead._

Probably not. I bet he's still pissed at me.

_Dead._

"Bakura-kun, are you alright?"

Wow. Even dead, people call me by my last name.

_Dead._

"You're okay, the boulder was fake. It was made of a balloon and a speaker."

_Dea-_ What!?

I looked up too see Anzu kneeling by my side. Big blue eyes and bright smile boring into me. I was fine. I was going to kill Pegasus!

Now, now Ryou, you remember where malicious thoughts got you, namely here. Besides you swore against them.

"ULTIMATE SCREW KNUCKLE!!!" we heard a scream yell from a little farther down the cave, and it sounded like...Jounochi.

We ran to the direction of the scream.

We arrived in front of one of the giant duel arena's just in time to see Jounochi reduce his opponents life points to zero.

Jounochi noticed our entrance and turned around to give Yuugi a thumbs up. "I did it Yuugi." he said.

"Alright let's go." Said a large muscled man. He was blond, wearing a biker's vest over a red shirt, sunglasses, a large cross and what looked like the American flag over his head. Then he, and some other odd looking characters, left.

"Sorry to worry you everyone, I got caught up in the duel." Jounochi said walking over too us.

"You should be sorry." Honda said grinning at him. "Bakura almost had a heart attack looking for you." They have no idea, I thought smiling.

"Leave Jounochi alone, and lets just be happy he's back." Yuugi said looking happily at his friend.

"Well you did beat him, so I forgive you." Honda said.

"You were incredible in your duel Jounochi!" I said just happy to see him well. I looked over him quickly and sighed in relief when I saw there wasn't a scratch on him. The Jouzilla that had been grating my conscious could finally rest.

"Enough of that, lets get out of this creepy place." Anzu said.

We all agreed and headed toward the exit we had seen Jounochi's opponent leave moments before. We broke into a happy jog, ready to finally get out of here.

Then something started to eclipse the light coming from the exit. We ran faster to see what the problem was. It was a boulder. They were sealing us in the cave with a boulder.

From outside we heard someone yell; "Now you'll be stuck there forever, In AMERICA!!!"

A/N-Could I resist? Hell no! Alright while reviews are more then immensely appreciated, sometimes the only thing that makes me get up in this morning, I'm not going to lie to you guys. I feel my limit with updates is once every two weeks. Sorry.

But please pretty please review anyway. Unless you want to bash Anzu, then you can keep your thoughts to yourself. I don't need or want any negativity in my positive review zone.

Since I'm in a rush and my A/n's are not as exclamatory as usual, feel free to ask questions and I promise I'll get back to you/

PLEASE REVIEW!!! I'm about to have a bad week and I need them.


	11. One step closer

A/N- WOW! Do you guys realize how long it's been? 5 months! Wow. I sure got caught up in life. But now I'm back to pollute fanfic with my awful writing. I wonder if anyone even remembers this...

Disclaimor- I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! But neither do you!

I stared disdainfully at my ring and sighed as I saw Anzu also give up and walk away.

Jounochi, Yuugi and Honda continued to try to move the boulder to no avail, but they were stubborn.  
Going back the way we came was an impossibility considering how dark the path had become and I was wary of using the ring again. I did not trust the power surge it gave me or the one who had recommended its use. The arrogance, the feeling of control, those were traits of Spirit. Acting out those traits was one thing, but when I started to feel those things myself...it was wrong. I could not become Spirit himself now that I was free.

Then there was Zorc. I could not take his disappearance for granted; I was not completely sure what had happened to him after last night. He said nothing could be taken without giving something in return, and I did not want to sacrifice my heart to the darkness for this power. Could that have been his real plan? To have me use the Shadow Powers until I was so far in debt that I had no choice but to bind myself to him? To let myself be bound and gagged in the back of my own mind and have control over my life lost again? I couldn't let it happen.

I watched as everyone, even little Yuugi, tried his hardest to free us, while I just stood here. But I knew my small strength would do nothing, we had no hope using brute strength against the rock, and the only thing I could do might end my life.

So I would let my friends die in here with me because of my cowardliness? If only I had not messed with the ring, then the spiritual pressure left behind by Spirit would show a way out and to Pegasus's castle, now it only led to Jounochi.

A sudden realization hit me. Perhaps I could simply remove my will from the ring and it would take over where Spirit left off. I closed my eyes and concentrated on letting go and letting Spirit's will take over.

NO!

I stopped suddenly, my heart pounding in my chest. I felt sweat run down my face and my breath come out in gasps. No. I couldn't. I can't do it. I'm free dammit. And Him. I could feel him in there. Strong, fierce, overbearing and waiting to swallow me. How could I just give up to him when I finally have my chance? I WON'T!

I tried to calm myself, but my heart continued to race. Was I shaking? No, that would be ridiculous and of course that was just more sweat on my cheek. The mere memory of Spirit's old dominating presence wasn't enough to bring me to tears. I was not that pathetic...

I was being irrational. He wasn't there; he was in the Shadow Realm. Plus, it was not really giving into him, just not taking control of the situation myself. Besides, I had done the real thing before: let Spirit take over to do something I couldn't. Why not now, when there would be zero consequences? Because...back then I didn't see any hope. I would always be at the mercy of Spirit, he would always be there doing as he pleased, so why not use it to my advantage? Why not ask for favors and let the consequences come, if they would most likely come anyway?

Now it was different. Now only I controlled my life. To give into anything, even something so small, when I didn't have to, when I had that hope, to be only and completely me...It would...I would...

"Shit! It just won't move! We're just going to have to find a different way out!"

"How can we possibly find another way out!? The cave is pitch-black and booby-trapped by Pegasus?"

I would be a gutless coward if I did anything less.

This time I closed my eyes and let go of everything. I could feel Spirit's will still living strong within the ring, barely muffled by mine and nowhere near being completely suppressed. It was like sharks' teeth, a thousand of them below me, gnashing and biting and waiting to tear me apart. The worst part of it was that it felt so smug, just like he was. He always knew I would come crawling back to him. That I would let myself be used, if it meant I did not have to take control of the situation myself. That damn self-assurance, he knew I couldn't do it...and I accepted that. I gave up any control I had tried to establish in the ring and let what was left of him resume his position of dominance. I was no more.  
The ring levitated and gave forth a golden light. All the spikes rose and began to pull down a path and I began to follow.

"It is this way to Pegasus's castle," I told them, not stopping to explain what was going on. If they were smart, they would follow. They hesitated and started to ask questions but I cut them off with a quick, "Let's go!" and continued my stride, not missing a beat.

I did not want to think, I did not want to exist, all I wanted to do was to keep moving forward, even my reasons best left unremembered. I concentrated only on taking the next the step. No thoughts, no emotions, just. Step, step, step. The sound of my footfalls echoing in rhythm with my heartbeat. Step, step, step. Everything closed out around me and the steps became my existence. I began walking faster and the increased footfalls sped up with my heart. I continued running, more steps, more existence, faster and faster until I ran into a prism of light that woke me from my haze.

I began blinking rapidly at this new light. The thought, 'Is this the exit' passed quickly through my mind. The exit? Had that been what I was looking for? I was still staring dazed, as the others caught up and surrounded me. They looked into the light and shocked gasps filled the cave.

I calmed the ring until it rested gently on my chest and stared in amazement. We had not found the exit, or at least the one that led to the outside, but the way to a human-made room. A bright teal staircase with golden banisters led us down into the strange room. Instead of the jagged, natural cave walls we had been walking through, the room was made of smooth stone painted a bright red. The ceiling was a sparkling gold covered with large ceiling lights and the floor was a fluorescent green. At the far side of the room stood two doors, one with the kanji symbol 'Mei' and the other with the kanji symbol 'Kyuu'. The room seemed so bright and colorful after an hour spent in the gloomy cave; it almost hurt my eyes.

We stared dumbfounded at this room, which seemed too unreal to be true, when suddenly two men appeared. They used an elaborate display of flips and cartwheels until they reached the center of the room. They did not stop there however, mid-flip they began to kick and strike at each other, blocking and moving while still in the air, until they finally landed in front of us.

The two men were tall and seemed to be Chinese; on top of that, they appeared to be twins. They looked exactly alike, including the same shaven haircut and the same dark narrow eyes. Both stood side by side, arms crossed and glaring. There were only two ways to tell them apart. One wore orange traditional Chinese clothing, while the other wore the same outfit in green, the one wearing orange had the kanji symbol 'Mei' painted on his head in bold black, while the one in green had a similar tattoo that instead had the symbol 'Kyuu'.

"We are the Labyrinth Brothers: defenders of the Labyrinth!" they announced in union.

"Labyrinth Brothers!" Jounochi laughed. "What the hell is this, some kind of Hong-Kong movie?" he said, still laughing at how ridiculous the situation seemed.

"Lost ones, would you like to know-" The Mei brother began, "which is the right path?"

Kyuu finished in perfect rhythm with his brother. They did not wait for us to answer before beginning again. "In that case," Mei started once more. "For the answer," Kyuu continued. "You must defeat us in a duel," they said in perfect unison. As they spoke their final line, they jumped and did mid-air summersaults to the opposite side of the room.  
The duo stood a few feet away from each other, a little away from the wall and appeared to be waiting for something. Suddenly, the middle section of the floor began to rise, including the part where the brothers were standing.

When the rubble and dust cleared, it revealed a giant duel arena. However, instead of the usual one-on-one stands, this arena had a spot for four duelists, one side with two places for the twins, and another for their opponents.

"Two duelists-" Mei began in his rehearsed tone. "Step forward!" Kyuu ended dramaticly.

Jounochi grinned at Yuugi confidently. "Guess that's us," he said, ready to take on the challenge.

Yuugi smiled back at his friend for a moment, and then touched the puzzle around his neck tentatively. A small glow appeared around it, almost unnoticeable, especially considering how my own special item reacted when in use. The glow lasted a moment, Yuugi inhaled what appeared to be the beginning of a sigh, and then it was his other half that exhaled. Yuugi's friendly smile was now an arrogant smirk.

"Alright Jounochi, beating these guys is all it takes to get to Pegasus, lets do this."

Yuugi's body-mate said without a trace of doubt in his abilities.  
Soon after starting, the duel became another example of things that would not work in the original trading card game. The brothers beginning strategy was to turn the playing field into a labyrinth. How would that even work in a card game? Then Yuugi's dueler half's and Jounochi's monsters were forced to go through the maze in paces based on strength, while the twins were able to summon a monster that was able to skate across the labyrinth walls and go any where they commanded. How would that special ability even be useful without the holograms? Jounochi's Red Eyes Black Dragon was rendered useless, because a flying monster could not enter the labyrinth. There was even a card that re-arranged the structure of the labyrinth. The icing of the cake was at the end of the duel when Mei and Kyuu were able to summon the Gate Guardian that blocked the exit of the field labyrinth in an attempt to prevent our team from winning. What happened to life points? It was the same as it had been with the duel with the POD, when he used darkness to shroud his cards, it did not seem to make sense for a real card game. The more I watched, the more it seemed Pegasus created special cards for the sole purpose of giving him an advantage in the new holographic games. Was he cheating? Giving his Player Killers special cards to ensure Yuugi's loss? Would Pegasus really defile his creation in such a way?

Whether my theories were true or not, Yuugi's other self -with the combined efforts of Jounochi, was able to defeat the MeiKyuu brothers. He even used their methods against him, empowering a lightning attack by the water left behind from one of their attacks and using a card that traded the position of two monster cards, using it to have Yami's Black Magician and Jounochi's Red Eyes Black Dragon switch places. Now they finally had 10 star chips, and could challenge Pegasus.

Unfortunately, the twins interrupted our celebrations.

"I'm afraid the games aren't over quite yet." Mei said with malice. "You can have all the star chips you want, but that means nothing if you don't know the way out," Kyuu elaborated with a sneer. Our attention was brought to the two doors I had noticed earlier. They were both gold, but the one on the right had the symbol Mei painted in blue across it, while the one on the left had the Kyuu symbol painted on it in green.

"I suppose you guys aren't planning on telling us which door leads us out," said Yuugi's other half, who had remained in control. He was not even paying attention to the brothers, but already analyzing the doors.

"Finding the true door is part of the game that leads to the prize of escape," Mei answered.

"You guys are nuts!" Anzu yelled. The duo was beginning to get on everyone's nerves.

"You lost the game, so suck it up and tell us how to get out already!" From what I've seen of her, Anzu has proven to have a bit of a temper.

"So which door will it be?" They asked, completely ignoring her.

"I thought it might come down to this," the other Yuugi said with a sigh. "So we'll use these to decide" he said reaching into his pockets and pulling out two coins. One had Mei on it, the other Kyuu, just like the doors. He then put one coin in each hand and closed his fist around them. "I'm going to pick one of my hands and open it, the symbol on the coin in the hand still closed, will be the door I choose." It seemed like an odd strategy to use. Flipping a coin I would understand, it was a 50-50 chance, but this seemed so elaborate, and it's not as if he didn't know which coin was in which hand.  
Tension filled the room as he debated which hand to open, our ability to leave this place rested on a coin. Finally, he opened his left hand.

"That's the Kyuu symbol!" The Kyuu brother shouted. "So you have chosen the mei door?" Yuugi's other half didn't answer; he just continued to smirk at the brothers, waiting for them to continue.

"The exit is in..." the Mei brother began. "The Kyuu door!!" The Kyuu brother finished as they broke into evil chuckles.

The smirk never left the other Yuugi's face. "I thought as much." he said. "There is no one real exit to this place. If I chose Mei, the exit would be kyuu, if I chose kyuu the exit would be Mei." He said sounding satisfied. I didn't understand why he was so happy.

Whether he discovered their plan or not it was too late. We were trapped.

"You rats did that!?" Jounochi yelled angrily. "God damn it! Give us a break already."

"It does not matter." The brothers said, speaking in unison again. "The fact is you have chosen wrong. We win the game."

Yuugi's body-mate let out a dark chuckle. "Sucks to be you," he said with a prideful grin stretched across his face. "I chose Kyuu" he said opening his hand. "This coin only had Kyuu on it, but the other coin had Mei and Kyuu on it," he said, pleased with himself.

"So I guess we just won the game," he said as strutted past the brothers to the Kyuu door and pushed it open as we followed.

A/N-So I'm back. Review and tell me if I should stay here.


	12. What makes light and dark

A/N-What do you know, an update! And it hasn't even been a month. Unfortunately, if you thought the last was short, you're going to be disappointed. This chapter is really more of a plot mover. It's almost time for Yuugi's duel with Kaiba and I want to start a fresh chapter on that, so this sorta needed to be out of the way. So, try to enjoy, don't kill me and remember the next chapter will probably be up in two weeks.

The door immediately slammed behind us once we were all through.

For a tense moment, we were all worried. Had we been tricked after all? Would the brothers really do something so cruel as leave us trapped in a cave to rot? Should we begin banging on the door and screaming? Would anyone let us out?

In that tense moment it was, unfortunately for me, my own klutziness that saved us. When the door closed, whatever passage we were in suddenly became pitch-dark. We didn't have a chance to see what it looked like at all, and now it was to dark to see each other, much less the details of wherever we were. Panic took me, I felt myself starting to breathe deeply, on the verge of hyperventilating, and I could not stop jittering around, I was unable to stay still in this environment. I felt like some pressure was being forced on me, my whole body felt tight, it was if I was being constricted by some unknown force, and just as I was about to scream from the tension, a pair of strong hands gripped my shoulder.

"Relax Bakura," I heard Jounochi say, though I couldn't see his face, so the confident yet reassuring grin I knew was invisible to me. "Why are you breathing like that, are you scared of small spaces, um, claustrophobic or something?"

While Jounochi's touch was probably meant to be comforting, I only felt worse, though it did distract me. I started struggling against him, trying to get him to release his grip. "No, lygophobic!" I yelled, still trying to get out. Was I really so weak he didn't even feel me trying to get away?

"Do I look like I would know every single odd fear humanity has decided to come up with, Bakura? What the hell is lygophobic?"

"Fear of being trapped in small, _dark_ spaces!" I said, finally breaking free. I didn't know what to do, but I needed to move, to get out. Frantically, I started to run.

"Bakura, you are not going to stand there and tell me that as an almost grown man, especially an occult obsessed one, you are scared of the dark!"

"No! Just being trapped in it."

Of course I was scared of being trapped in the dark! The darkness is where everything you should be afraid of thrives. Hadn't Zorc's rise to power there proved that even more? Darkness was loneliness. Even now the darkness was isolating me from my friends, I couldn't see their faces, couldn't feel their presence. All was masked by it. Everyone left me in darkness, my family disappeared in it, Spirit binded me with it, and my friends were lost in it. What about it was not to fear? If I was stuck in darkness, I would be alone forever. But I had lost the person I shared my life and body with, what greater loss could there possibly be? What new level of desolation could I possibly be thrust into?  
The constricted feeling returned as thoughts of never escaping darkness or this lonesome feeling raced through my head. I was seized with hysteria. I had to run: To get out of here! Away from the darkness, away from the force, the feeling, of what would take everything I cared for away from me.  
Perhaps it was adrenaline that helped me break through Jounochi's much stronger grasp, or maybe my wild thrashings seemed so mad that Jounochi got scared and released me himself. Either way I was free; and I bolted.

However, almost as soon as my freedom was given and I made my escape, I found myself in pain. I could feel small pebble up my nose and gravel in my mouth. Had I run into the cave wall? I felt too disoriented to tell, but...I didn't feel my body connect with anything until I hit the cave floor. There had been only air in front of me! How could I crash into air!? I suppose I tripped, not an oddity for me and yet, I did not feel as if I was laying flat on my stomach as I should have if I had tripped and fallen. I fell...on an incline? Also, though most of my body was in pain, the pressure that should have been everywhere if I was on the ground, was in segments. My head felt boxed inside something, my chin was resting on something, pressure just below my chest, on my knees and my feet were not flat down, it was more like I was on...tiptoes? Perhaps I could have put these clues together myself in a different circumstance, but it was made of solid stone and it hurt and... that really was taking up most of my thinking space.

A low groan of "Oowww," brought the others attention to me.

"Bakura!?"

"Are you okay?"

"Where is he? What happened?"

"How the hell is anyone supposed to know where that kid is, laying in some corner, when we can't even see each other!?"

"Well his hair is really light, maybe it would kinda glow..."

"Bakura, continue to moan in pain so we can find you."

"Uuuggghhh." I said half in pain, half in exasperation at the others. Would I ever get used to this odd style of friendship I had with them?

"There he is!" I heard a chorus of footsteps running in my general direction. I was grateful for that, even when one of them tripped over me...

"Hey Bakura, you alright?" said Anzu.

"Yes" I said, a small lie, I could feel some bruises, my head was throbbing and I still had the taste of dirt in my mouth, but she could be a bit sensitive and there was no reason to worry her. "But it seems I have fallen on something, something uncave like."

"Huh," she said while patting the ground around her. A few seconds of that before she started loudly yelling, right by my ear, "STEPS! There are steps! It's a staircase! We can get out of here!"

Anzu yanked me up and started dragging me up. I could feel the others all around me now. Not just in the exited murmurings or in the small brushes of touch as everyone tried to go as far as possible or even in Anzu's firm grasp. It was in a brightness, a light aura I could feel all around me now. Something that broke the binding darkness I feared so much.  
We were exited, but we took careful steps until we reached the top of the staircase. Freedom was so close, we were trebling with exitement and pusing back any anxity that this might lead no where. That if this was staircase to a place that no longer existed, or just a cruel joke placed by the MeiKyuu brothers, we would have to be at the door we came, begging for mercy. Something none of us wanted to do.

We reached the final step and looked up. To our delight the roof had an outline of sunlight in a large patch directly above us. If the small break had let in enough light foor us to see each other, we might have exchanged similar glances of purpose, but we could not see each other and we knew what we needed to do anyway. Without a word we gave a unified push and the patch of roof fell over easily. A small layer of dust rose and swarmed around us, so we did not see it right away, but then, it happened. Warm, blinding sunlight hit us, the first sun we had seen in who-knows-how-many hours, and it felt so great.

A/N-See? Short, but necessary. And if you're really upset, next chapter is going to be great. From the moment I saw Yuugi's reaction, I knew I had to do something special with it, which is why it needs it's own chapter. Ryou and Yuugi are so different, and Ryou's about to realize that.

Don't give up on me now, Ryou's 24 hours without Bakura is almost up. You don't want to miss the reunion. I've had that planned for almost a year now. I knew that before I knew any of this middle stuff that's all improvised, 0 planning whatsoever.

So, review, because even mad at me, I love you guys.


	13. Yuugi's pain

A/N-Well here I am. Better late then never. Plus, I really worked hard on this one. I got a new wrting software thats really good and yells at me a lot for using contractions and says I use the passive voice a lot, so I tried to change that. It makes me nostalgic. I wonder if I've improved at all? I started this at the bebing of junior year, my first fanfiction. Now it's the end of the year, I'm almost a senior and this thing is ending...Wow. Well, we still have a couple chapters left so enjoy guys!

Disclaimer-I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, Kaiba would be sustaining some pretty serious injuries...

The sky had never looked so beautiful in my entire life.

Compared to the jagged and dreary, gray walls of the cave and the pitch-blackness of the passageway we had just escaped, the bright, endless expanse of blue was heaven. Nothing would have given me more pleasure then to just sit and admire it, the way it seemed to be everywhere: like in a children's coloring book, where all the spaces are colored in. I would be content to contemplate the mystical color the sky is: a million different shades in even the tiniest distance. I could happily watch the way the billowy clouds rolled gently across it in such a serene fashion forever. Yes, all of this would have been wonderful if a single gleaming spike of the Millennium Ring had not been pointing straight up in the air, directly toward the sky.

"Wha-what the-" I said, wondering what it could possibly mean. The one raised was the Millennium Eye's spike we had followed to the MeiKyuu brother's room. Why would did the Ring think the Eye was in the sky? How was that even possible? I looked up, to see if perhaps Pegasus was escaping with a jet, or something of the sort, but everything above was calm. Perhaps the Ring was not tracking the Items at all, but something else. On the other hand, what if, like Yuugi's and mine, all the Items had spirits within them. What if that was what the Ring tracked? If so, then maybe a spirit was moving on to the heavens. What if-?

"Look!" Anzu shouted, breaking off my chain of thoughts. It was then I noticed that we were not simply in an open field. To our backs was a large cliff, or more like a leveled out mountain. On top was a large castle, whose towers punctured the clouds I had been admiring previously.

"Pegasus's Castle!"

"We made it!"

"Finally!"

I tried to prevent the light blush that was now burning on my cheeks. Of course, the Ring was not pointing to the sky, only a very high castle, so tall it touched the sky.

Jounochi and Honda took off running toward a large, elaborate set of stairs built into the mountain. Who couldn't understand there excitement? We were finally almost there. As I began to chase after them, I wished I wasn't wearing shoes. I wanted to fell the grass beneath my feet; it had been too long since I had felt the soft yet bristling cushion beneath my feet, whose colors varied as much as the sky. Could it still be dewy enough that I would feel the slimy wetness as it clung to my skin?

I put the thought away and tried to keep up with the others. It was a childish desire. I was normally not such a nature lover, but being away from it for so long gave it a lure. A form of homesickness I suppose. I knew I should not give into such trivial fancies: I had to be the mature one.

We reached the steps and I could see how their spirits seemed to rise with each step they took. There was nothing but grins on their faces. As I began climbing the stairs, I felt a sudden regret for _not_ throwing caution to the wind, taking off my socks and shoes and running through the filed. You only live once. Why should I be the mature one? I stopped halfway up the stairs, fully prepared to go through with it, to live outside orders and social confines for a moment, when a voice called me back into my life.

"Bakura! Hurry up, what are you doing? If you don't get going we'll leave you behind with the love birds down there!"

I looked up to see Jounochi's smiling at me for a second, before he turned his attention elsewhere with a smirk. I rushed up the last few steps separating us and turned my gaze to see what he was looking at.

Yuugi and Anzu were still by the entranceway that had led us back to the outside world. They had not moved a muscle in the 10 minutes, maybe, that we had been climbing. They were just standing next to each other, staring at each other with the strangest expressions.

"A confession?" Honda asked, peering over the edge at the couple.

"No way!" Jounochi said, peering closer to the edge to get a better look. He scrutinized them for a minute and a flash of anger seemed to cross his face.

"No way." he said again, a mutter under his breath as he shook his head. "This is our big adventure Yuugi, our movie-like experience of a life time. Battling the bad guys, saving our family, it's supposed to be Action, sometimes Fantasy when things get a little weird, but not Romance, not with her, you know she won't change."

I had never seen Jounochi with such an expression. A mix of pity and resigned sadness hung on his face for a moment, before an impenetrable mask of the blind happiness that he had always seemed to cover his face.

He smiled in a way that you could never see the emotions it held back. He looked at Honda and I with his wide grin and said,

"Watch this."

He moved to farthest edge he could, half his body hanging off the wall that surrounded the steps and yelled, "Hey, what are you two doing!"

Yuugi and Anzu both jumped when they heard him. They quickly turned away and stiffly stood, not looking at each other, as if caught in some crime.

"Stop making-out and lets hurry up!" he yelled again.

Anzu and Yuugi looked at each other awkwardly, and began making their ways to steps to join us.

"I'm sure the competition, like you know KAIBA, isn't beating us!" Honda yelled as well, noting the pair's slow pace.

They sped up and started dashing toward us, laughing as they went.

It was hard not to smile at the sight of the couple. They really seemed to be in love. It was like the movies. They were the couple that even if you didn't like one of the characters, you knew they just had to be together, that they would pull through from any circumstance and end up together. They had to. Because that's the way movie love worked.

While watching Yuugi and Anzu's happiness below, Jounochi's pity and pain became abundantly clear. This was not a movie. Neither would sacrifice their dream for each other, though they refused to admit the truth the future held when they could now bask in the joy of the present.

They could be carefree and not worry that Anzu would never surrender her dream to leave for New York and make it big, or her vow that once she left small town life she would never return. The fact that Yuugi would never have any desire to leave his home once his adventures were through did not have to cross their mind. This is not a perfect world and they are going to get hurt. I felt sympathetic for them as well, even as they finally caught up with us, without a hint of distress about what happened below.

A series of gasps that escaped from the group interrupted any pondering of the star-crossed couple. We had almost made it to the top, but standing at the very top of the stairs. For a moment, he seemed shrouded in darkness, and was unrecognizable. However, the familiar tailcoats flowing dramatically in the wind, the crossed arms, the aloof stance, the icy glare, scowl combo that could penetrate from miles away gave it away. I confirmed my suspicion as we moved closer and he came into full view. It could only be Seto Kaiba.

I could feel the disdain rising to my face. I could not contain the malice I felt toward him. Everything about who he was, I despised. Completely.

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi said, clearly as surprised as the rest of us.

"Yuugi!" Kaiba responded. "I won't let you go any farther!"

"Why?" Yuugi asked, confused.

"My fate lies on this island." He said in a low voice and then continued louder this time,

"My existence is based solely on the winds of battle and the wind of battle is swirling around us constantly!"

"Kaiba, Yuugi has already beaten you!" Anzu said in an exasperated voice.

"I'll be your opponent Kaiba! Give me two seconds and I'll kick your ass!" Jounochi yelled, with all his usual bravado.

At this, Kaiba's head turned head and his serious expression tuned to a smirk as he gazed Jounochi down. He gave a contemptful, "Hmmp." and continued to smirk, amused at Jounochi's anger. He didn't even have the decency to turn away after his mockery, but retained full eye contact with Jounochi, continuing to mock him with the ridicule in his eyes.

My expression of abhorrence for Kaiba in general turned to appall once again for his treatment of Jounochi. Nevertheless I was not about to let my personal loathing for him allow me to make the same mistake twice. Already familiar with Jounochi's feelings for Kaiba I quickly lunged for some hold on him before he could attempt to attack Kaiba again. I managed to grab an arm and Honda, luckily had the same idea as me and was already holding the other one just as Jounochi was about to fling himself on Kaiba with his fist flailing.

"YOU ASSHOLE!" Jounochi cried as he tried to escape our grip.

I got frustrated as one his nails managed to dig into my arm.

"Stop it Jounochi, you didn't even come close to beating him last time."

I felt him go completely lax in my arms, the picture of defeat.

"You're right," he said, sounding miserable. I remembered the nightmare I had seem him struggling with after his last duel with Kaiba and wondered if that was to harsh. Kaiba seemed to affect Jounochi in a way most people could not.

"Uh…"

"Nice job Bakura, you talk too much." Anzu said as she gazed at Honda and I attempting to keep the half-dead looking Jounochi upright.

"Sorry…"

As if that was not enough, Kaiba noticed that Jounochi had all ten of his starchips.

"Don't tell me that loser mutt has all 10 starchips," He said with a cruel laugh. "Did the pathetic puppy finally get some backbone?"

It was a good thing Honda and I had not yet let go of Jounochi, because Kaiba's words instantly reinvigorated him.

"SOME BACKBONE!" he yelled and attempted to assault Kaiba for a second time.

I decided to wait it out in silence this time. Every time I tried to calm Jounochi down from one of his rages, I only managed to depress him. My poor people skills were becoming increasingly apparent.

"Well that is one miracle," he said, seemingly his last word on the topic of Jounochi. "But I've come to search for the answers of a different one. Why did I loose to Yuugi? How did he pull off a miracle? I think I have finally found my answer. At the time of our last duel you had something I did not."

He seemed to pull something out of his pocket, stare at it for a moment and then put it away with a sigh. However, instantly his vigor returned.

"Yuugi, if you want to get in this castle, you'll have to beat me down. This is our fated duel!" He said with a burning fire in his eyes.

Whatever new passion was fueling him, I had no sympathy for him or his selfish ways. "You don't have to accept the duel Yuugi," I said with a surprising coldness.

Yuugi trembled with indecision; Kaiba noted this and shouted, "Our duelist blood demands a rematch!"

Yuugi seemed to flinch at the term, but I was unable to examine the reason behind this further. Suddenly, with the tiniest flash, the smallest glow someone who would never show the same look of vulnerability that Yuugi just had, replaced him. Was that why Yuugi had flinched, I wondered as a smirk to match Kaiba's spread across his face, did he ever get a chance to decide what he wanted to do, or had life thief simply determined that his duelist blood wanted a battle?

"I'll accept your challenge Kaiba, and I'll defeat you," he said, arrogance leaving no room for doubt, no belief in anything less then a perfect victory.

"Then follow me." Kaiba said and walked off with confidence in his stride.

We silently followed Kaiba through a passageway and up another winding staircase. As we walked, I noticed Anzu looked worried. She was lagging behind the group, between Honda and I who were usually the last. She was usually right up front next to Yuugi. I quietly moved beside her. It couldn't be that she was worried about the duel; we had seen enough games to know the outcome. What could it be?

"Are you alright?" I whispered

She looked at me a moment, as if unsure as whether or not to tell me. After a moments hesitation she finally said, "Does Yuugi look different to you?"

I was too surprised to answer for a minute. So, they really didn't now. Of course, if anyone were to figure it out alone, it would be Anzu. She was the brains of the group, though since her competition was Jounochi and Honda, I suppose it was not a hard title to win. But how much should I tell her? I did not know Yuugi's wishes or even how much he himself was aware was.

The only time I had questioned Yuugi about the spirit that resided in his puzzle, he said that they did not talk to each other. Then there was the way he acted. To me, he always seemed so powerless to his other's whims, so dependant and resigned to it in a way that I'm sure made him just as sick as it made me. That had to be early stages of the relationship. I decided to enter the subject cautiously.

"Different in comparison to what?" I asked slowly.

She glared at me with such ferocity it caught me off guard.

'To a few minutes ago!" she said in a harsh whisper, "To every other time he's not dueling!" she said, obviously struggling to keep her voice down.

"Maybe it's just his game face, Anzu, you know, getting in the zone." I said. She seemed far too sensitive right now for me to tell her anything. I didn't want her to have a breakdown.

"No, it's not just with games. I have…been in emergencies, and he gets that face just before he saves me in some unexplainable way. His eyes change." she said, reminding me of the saying, 'the gateway to the soul is through the eyes'. Could she see the soul change in Yuugi's eyes?

"The worst part is, sometimes I like those eyes," she said, continuing the narrative. "I like those fierce, terrifying eyes more then I like my Yuugi's sweet, gentle eyes. I like that intruder more then I like the boy I grew up with." She said her voice almost a sob now. "I shouldn't, he's not my Yuugi, but he's cool and passionate in a way Yuugi never was and…Oh God."

Silence filled the aftermath of her confession. What could I say to that? What advice could I give to the girl who fell in love with two parts of one soul? Wasn't it natural? If a person liked one part of a person, wouldn't they like the rest? Anzu loved the whole Yuugi should have been, but because they were separated, she felt untrue. What could I say?

I never got a chance to give Anzu any advice on her star-crossed love. At that moment, we went through a doorway that led to a high platform on top of the castle. It was a beautiful view; we were up three times higher then any of the trees and from this, height and you could really appreciate the varied landscape of the island. There were dense forests, sandy beaches, grassy plain, desert wastelands and snowy mountains all in one contained place. It was breath taking and a once in a lifetime view.

The two duelists however, did not spare a glance for the landscape. They took their positions on opposite sided of the platform, staring at each other intently. Their eyes never broke contact, like predators refusing to lose sight of the kill. Kaiba tossed over the portable duel disk he had used against Jounochi, "I will defeat you", and so it began.

Kaiba dueled cold and brutally. He destroyed everything he could and persevered as strong as ever no matter how many damaging hits he took. But no matter how hard he tried, how fierce he attacked, the other Yuugi remained poised for victory. All his efforts had become futile. In a last minute, desperate attempt to achieve victory, Kaiba stood at the very edge of the castle roof, swearing to jump if he lost.

Kaiba looked completely hollow as he walked back onto the edge. His voice lacked all emotion, not his previous bravado or even the misery of one threatening suicide. He had become an empty shell, to give him the determination needed to do whatever it took to win. A similar task faced Yuugi; did he have what it took to abandon everything to win?

It was hard to know what to cheer for, as we watched the other Yuugi's hesitation. A life was at stake on either side. If he went ahead and won, fought to the last to save his grandfather, Kaiba would die. If he forfeited to protect Kaiba, Yuugi's grandfather would be lost forever. What could he do?

Yuugi is other self's eye's hardened, his grip on the cards in his hand tightened. The decision he had made was clear. He would risk Kaiba to win. Anzu, always the perceptive one, noticed the subtle changes in position first. She saw his decision and reacted before any of us could blink.

As The Celtic Guardian raced across the field to attack Kaiba's dragon, Anzu rushed to Yuugi.

"Yuugi, don't do it!" she cried as the elf raised his sword.

"Stop!" The other Yuugi ignored her cries and stared straight ahead.

"Yuugi! Go back to normal, Yuugi!" Finally, something seemed to hit. He flinched and stepped back a bit, as if had been slapped and then dropped to his knees. When he hit the ground, it was the real Yuugi in control.

The Celtic Guardian on the field stopped as well. Across the platform, Kaiba closed his eyes. "I win." he said softly, but he seemed to take no joy out of the announcement. His Blue eyes attacked with a bright light that completely engulfed Yuugi's monster before destroying it.

No one seemed able to move. None of our gazes was able to leave Yuugi as we watched, unable to breathe, as he cried on the spot he had dropped before. Even Kaiba was completely transfixed.

A particularly large wail from Yuugi suddenly broke whatever was keeping us in place and we rushed to Yuugi's side.

Yuugi did not look at any of us as we appeared around him.

"I couldn't do it.," he said to no one in particular. "If the game had continued, Kaiba-kun would have died!" he began a new set of hysterics as he finished.

"Yuugi, you chose to help Kaiba over winning." Jounochi said in pure amazement. Perhaps in his head, Kaiba had not been worth it.

"The only way out of the situation was to stop the duel." I said, hoping my usually ill taken version of comfort would help in some way.

"I'm scared…I'm so scared…Of the games…And my other!" Yuugi said, still not acknowledging any of us. A mix of anger, pity and sympathy swirled inside me. Look at what the Spirit of the Puzzle had brought him to. Controlled him with such fear that he didn't even trust himself. He was so terrified of what his other would do while in control… Yuugi was too pure, too fragile to handle being a host. He can't survive the brutal games the spirits seem to enjoy so much. He was so scared of what was going on, what this person made him do. I felt an instant comradeship stronger then before between us. Being used was a feeling we were both familiar with.

Anzu knelt down in front of him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry Yuugi, I'm so sorry. But he isn't who you are."

Yuugi seemed to react to her words. He stopped crying for a moment, opened his eyes and looked at her.

Leave it to Kaiba to send him back into a spiraling depression.

"You have finally shown me how weak you are Yuugi." He said, slowly walking toward us. If you had not cared about the final result, you could have won.

Anzu quickly rose to her feet in anger. Always the first to act when it came to Yuugi. Honda said she had been protecting him since they were kids. In fact, many people made it their duty to 'protect' Yuugi. How would he handle being an adult after so much coddling?

"You're wrong Kaiba, you lost the game!" For some reason this really seemed to affect him. His step faltered. 'What?" he asked surprised.

"Kaiba, you're willing to give up your precious life for Chips! You lost to yourself, in the end, you didn't even have the courage to accept your own defeat," she said.

Kaiba stared, shocked at her words. He seemed to have run-out of witty comebacks. Had no one ever called him out on his tactics before? Was a young girl sticking up for her friend really the first? Her verbal assault did not cease.

"You ran away Kaiba, you're the real loser. Yuugi won by choosing your life over any stupid chips in some tournament!" Kaiba still seemed angry at what she had said, but he walked away without a word, bringing our attention back to our distraught friend, who was still crying.

"Yuugi…" Anzu tried attentively.

"It couldn't be helped." He whispered, still to no one in particular. "If the duel had continued Kaiba would have…," he said, unable to finish the thought of almost killing someone.

"But…There is no question, I interfered with my other self. If he wasn't here, I wouldn't be anything….I wouldn't be able to do anything. He got me here, it's because of him that I'm this far, that I'm_ alive._ I owe him my life….Because of that….how could I…I should have…"he said and bust into another round of sobs.

Each word spoken shattered the bond of comradeship I had felt before. He was upset, because he disobeyed the spirit? But…he's his own person! He shouldn't bend down and submit! He had a right to live! This is war! The dual existence, it was about constant fight for control, for existence. Not smiling pleasantly as someone controlled your life. We were here first! Giving in could not be right.

Sure, Spirit saved my life on a number of occasions too, but that did not give him a right to it, did it? A million memories raced through my head: A sharp sting as a nanny punished me for some fault, a deep pang of hunger as I hid in a corner, a punch to the stomach of some bully who didn't like my face, cold nights, emptiness, loneliness, all the abandonment. He saved me from that. What was I before him? I felt myself choke as a sudden thought came to mind.

_Could I really owe him my life?_

A/N-You guys said my endings tend to be boring, so I hope this is better. With summer almost here, I'll have more time to work, so expect another soon. Please review, I have a secret goal to make 100 before this ends...dreams could come true...


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